Facebook announced this week that is launching a social network for college students called “Campus.” Facebook launched in 2004 as an early social network that originally only permitted college students to join.

According to a report by TechCrunch, Facebook is drawing inspiring from its early years by launching a social media network just for college students.

The platform, which is called “Campus,” will only be available to those with a “.edu” email address. The initial version of the platform will only be available to students at 30 select universities and colleges.
Facebook Campus Product Manager Charmaine Hung said that the product was designed to help students engage with each other during the coronavirus pandemic. Although Campus is being treated as an innovative product, it is in essence reinventing the wheel — Facebook itself was limited to students in its early years.

“We wanted to create a product where it was easy for classmates to meet each other, foster new relationships and also easily start conversations,” Hung said. “And we really think that Campus is more relevant than ever right now. With COVID-19, we see that many students aren’t returning to campus in the fall. Now, classes are being held online and students are trying to react to this new normal of what it’s like to connect to clubs and organizations that you care about, when you’re not together.”

The report claims that the product was developed, in part, to reclaim the teenage demographic, which has largely shifted away from Facebook. Although 71 percent of American teenagers said that they used Facebook in 2015, that figure declined to just 51 percent in 2018.

The Campus social network will launch with several features that attempt to distinguish it from Facebook, although many features are quite similar, such as a section dedicated to campus events. According to the report, student organizations recognized by the university will be given a Facebook group. University administrators will be permitted to post announcements directly to the platform.

Breitbart News reported this week that Republican Senators have introduced a bill called the “Online Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Act,” which seeks to counter attempts by social networks like Facebook to censor political speech.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.