Yik Yak has sparked controversy around the country and now one college in Vermont has blocked students from using the app on its campus. But despite rising concerns around the app’s anonymity – and consequent potential for cyberbullying and hate speech – the infamous “anonymous Twitter” is thriving at Syracuse University.

The app’s concept is similar to Twitter: students post messages to a live feed, which is curated based on users’ locations. The major difference is that Yik Yak is anonymous and posts to a single feed can be viewed by anyone in the area.

Yik Yak exists on more than 250 college campuses, each of which has a “herd” of at least 1,000 users. At SU, as of Sept. 16, about 66,903 messages, or “Yaks,” had been posted since November 2013, according to the latest numbers provided by Yik Yak. On Sept. 16 alone, there were 1, 672 Yaks.

The posts’ content can range from humorous to serious, or sincere to derogatory. Here is a snapshot of some of the Yaks posted in the SU area:

“Ideal way to fall asleep: watching Family Guy and receiving a blowjob.”

“Wear Orange tomorrow for Tucker Hipps. Clemson student who was found in a lake this weekend.”

“Asians get on my nerves! You’re on your phone all class, ask the stupidest questions because you weren’t listening, and now you’re asking for my notes because you’re asking your backpack. Go away!”

It is possible that when someone communicates to an audience they know little about, his or her comments could be more frank and as a result be potentially more hurtful to that audience, said Stephen DiDomenico, a visiting assistant professor in the department of communication and rhetorical studies. The app has the potential to magnify criticism in the person’s online comments.

“When people don’t know who the audience is through one of these technologies, it may magnify the impact it has on the audience’s own well-being,” DiDomenico said. “An example could be if someone was criticizing an aspect of their identity.”

But while Yik Yak has the potential to be harmful to students, the app’s creators are taking measures to prevent offensive content whenever possible.

“We’ve seen everything with social media apps being abused and misused,” said Tyler Droll, a co-founder of Yik Yak. “Ours is no different. Everything we do, we try to curb any bad and inappropriate behavior.”

To curate content, Yik Yak has internal filters and algorithms running to check for cyberbullying, slurs and other words associated with hate speech, Droll said. The users are also an added layer of moderation: if users find a post funny or interesting, they can “up-vote” it — the equivalent of liking a post on Facebook. Users can also “down-vote,” or dislike, Yaks so they will be off the feed.

When the SU community learned about the video of Syracuse women’s soccer player Hanna Strong using derogatory language, students used social media to express their opinions on the issue. People shared the news and voiced their concerns and opinions on Facebook and Twitter. But SU students also expressed themselves on Yik Yak.

Angela O’Neil, a freshman inclusive elementary and special education major, said she saw more users calling out Strong for her words rather than echoing her comments, calling her racist.

“They were more backing up the kids that she had offended rather than being racist,” O’Neil said.

Besides inappropriate messages, Yik Yak has been used to threaten students’ safety. At the University of Southern Mississippi, police arrested and charged Brandon Hardin with posting a computer threat to cause injury Monday. Hardin is accused of having made an anonymous post on Yik Yak that threatened the USM community, according to a USM press release.

Jayson Molina, an undecided freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences who uses Yik Yak, said the app’s anonymity allows people to post whatever they want without any consequences. And although he has seen Yaks with inappropriate language, most of the messages are jokes, Molina said. Molina believes a lot of the messages are people’s attempts to get up-votes.

“Nobody has a filter,” he said. “But, they know that they won’t get caught.”

ekmeyers@syr.edu

Published on September 25, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Ellen: ekmeyers@syr.edu | @ellenkmeyers