As the site thefacebook.com grows in popularity, more Penn State students are looking for a way to express themselves, but lately, some feel that this expression is going too far.

The seven-member Facebook group "I have AIDS and I'm not afraid to use them" came to the attention of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community earlier this month. After a series of complaints were reported, the makers of Facebook have decided to remove the group.

One of the individuals who led the campaign to remove this group was Tom Donohue, who is HIV positive and founder of Who's Positive, an organization raising awareness about the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Donohue, who currently takes summer classes through the university, said he was very upset when he discovered several members of the Penn State community had joined the group.

"AIDS and HIV is a serious epidemic," Donohue said. "Whether people are bisexual, gay or straight, it can happen to them as well, and it's not necessarily an epidemic that's discriminatory."

Members of the Facebook group did not return phone calls seeking an interview.

In an e-mail message, Chris Hughes, spokesman for Facebook, said users have the ability to directly report any profile or group that they find offensive.

At that point, the content is then evaluated to determine if it violates the site's Terms of Agreement, barring inappropriate and offensive content, he said.

In the case of the group "I have AIDS and I'm not afraid to use them," the material was deemed in violation of these regulations and removed in early January.

Clay Calvert, associate professor of communications and law, said Facebook was within its rights to remove the group from the Internet.

Because Facebook is a private entity, it has the prerogative to censor speech as it wants, he said.

"There are many groups that harbor offensive beliefs and have, under the First Amendment, an ability to espouse their speech as they see fit," Calvert said. "But they don't have a right to compel a private entity like facebook.com to post their speech on the Web site."

Angela Kropf, who serves as treasurer of the student group Global AIDS Initiative, said she thinks that the creators of this group are in denial of the prevalence of AIDS and HIV at Penn State.

"If everyone at Penn State had AIDS, it would take only six days to obliterate the entire campus," she said.

Donohue isn't the only person who took offense to groups on the Facebook site.

Darryl Watson, vice president of the Black Caucus, said he has seen several groups he feels have racist content, including one that portrays black men as rapists.

"These are reflections of a larger problem," Watson said.

"I don't think the university can or should do much to legislate the Internet, but Penn State does have a responsibility to attack these things so they wouldn't be manifested on the Internet," he said.

Penn State spokesman Steve MacCarthy said there is nothing the university can do in response to Facebook's content.

"The university is just a microcosm of society and unfortunately, there are people who harbor views that can be harmful to society as a whole," he said. "We just try to make them understand our desire to make this a welcoming place for everyone."