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Consider a free phone app where college students can post anonymously. What problems could possibly arise, right?
The free app was released 16 months ago by two fraternity pals who learned coding at their South Carolina university.
Lots, obviously, as Jonathan Mahler reports about Yik Yak in The New York Times:
Eastern Michigan is one of a number of universities whose campuses have been roiled by offensive “yaks.” Since the app was introduced a little more than a year ago, it has been used to issue threats of mass violence on more than a dozen college campuses, including . . . Michigan State University and Penn State. Racist, homophobic and misogynist “yaks” have generated controversy at many more. . . .
In much the same way that Facebook swept through the dorm rooms of America’s college students a decade ago, Yik Yak is now taking their smartphones by storm. Its enormous popularity on campuses has made it the most frequently loaded anonymous social app in Apple’s App Store
"I have been defamed, my reputation besmirched," philosophy Professor Margaret Crouch of EMU says in the front-page article. "I have been sexually harassed and verbally abused."
She wanted to take legal action, but "there was no way for the school to know who was responsible for the posts" while she spoke to honors students last fall, Mahler writes.
Yik Yak was released in late 2013 by two fraternity brothers who graduated from Furman University in Greenville, S.C. It doesn't ask for sign-up information and sorts posts solely by location or by university. Under the headline "Who Spewed That Abuse? Anonymous Yik Yak App Isn’t Telling," The Times explains:
Only posts within a 1.5-mile radius appear, making Yik Yak well-suited to college campuses. Think of it as a virtual community bulletin board — or maybe a virtual bathroom wall at the student union. It has become the go-to social feed for college students across the country. . . .
Much of the chatter is harmless. Some of it is not. . . .
At Kenyon College, a “yakker” proposed a gang rape at the school’s women’s center. . . .
Colleges are largely powerless to deal with the havoc Yik Yak is wreaking. The app’s privacy policy prevents schools from identifying users without a subpoena, court order or search warrant, or an emergency request from a law-enforcement official with a compelling claim of imminent harm. Schools can block access to Yik Yak on their Wi-Fi networks, but banning a popular social media network is controversial in its own right, arguably tantamount to curtailing freedom of speech. And as a practical matter, it doesn’t work anyway. Students can still use the app on their phones with their cell service.
The Atlanta-based company worked with Michigan State University Police to identify a MSU freshman who posted: “I’m gonna [gun emoji] the school at 12:15 p.m. today,” Mahler writes.
Matthew Mullen, arrested within two hours last November, pleaded guilty to making a false report or terrorist threat. His dorm room post came two days after a gunman opened fire inside a Florida State University library, wounding three people before police killed him.
The 19-year-old former Michigan State student from Northbrook, Ill., was sentenced in Ingham County court last week to two years’ probation and $1,737 in restitution fees for investigative costs, Kennedy Thatch reports in The State News campus paper.
