Yik Yak considers disabling posts from U.'s region

After an unknown individual emailed Yik Yak with a request to showcase posts from the University on the application's "Peek" feature, a Yik Yak support agent replied that the company is considering banning all future posts in the area.

Yik Yak is a Twitter-like application that allows users within a certain area to share anonymous posts from their phones. Though users can only comment on posts from their area, they can "Peek" at other locations to see what is being said there.

In the April 7 email, the agent explained the company's position by citing a trend of harassment at the University.

“We have received an unusually large number of reports from this area, in the past few days, which has gotten our attention,” the agent wrote. “We are currently considering implementing manual submission approval or possibly disabling submissions from this region completely.”

Yik Yak representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

According to the email, Yik Yak does not feature schools based on user suggestions and chooses schools to list on "Peek" based off content quality.

In early April, after videos featuring the student group Urban Congo emerged, students expressed their outrage on social media forums. In response, other students turned to Yik Yak to expose and harass those who had expressed discontent with Urban Congo.

A BuzzFeed article earlier this month presented screenshots of Yik Yak posts on campus that made offensive statements about African culture and posts that harassed individual students by including their initials and class years in posts.

“Personally, as an African, I was really offended and hurt that people think that way,” Audrey Chebet '18 said.

Chebet added that although she was not singled out, she felt directly affected and had observed her friends being named and harassed on Yik Yak.

Brandon Holt ’15 said that he found it interesting that Yik Yak, rather than the University, had intervened so actively.

“It’s the responsibility of the University to make sure that all students feel safe," Holt said. “If there is a particular mechanism that is contributing to the unsafety of students, the University intervenes.”

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Michele Minter, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity, said that administrators assess each harassment case individually and it is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether a situation reflects harassment or is the product of freedom of expression.

“In order to be harassing in a way that can be disciplined, a student has to be directly targeted based on a protected characteristic," Minter said. "Typically the harassment has to be rising to a level where its quite pervasive or quite severe."

Minter said that it is very difficult to discipline or identify those who have made the harassing posts, due to the anonymous nature of the app.

“I find Yik Yak problematic because it facilitates cowardly attacks on others,” she said, adding that disabling Yik Yak could remove one problematic way that people interact with each other on campus.

The University faculty adopted a statementfrom the University of Chicago affirming the University’s commitment to the principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression on April 6. The statement said that the University is not meant to shield individuals "from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”

According to the University Policy on Discrimination and/or Harassment, updated in February 2015, protected characteristics are “those personal traits, characteristics and/or beliefs that are defined by applicable law as protected from discrimination and/or harassment,” and may include “race, creed, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, ancestry, religion, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital or domestic partnership status, affectional or sexual orientation and/or other characteristics protected by applicable law.”

Achille Tenkiang ’17 said that students should delete the Yik Yak application, as it is not a platform for productive conversation.

“I think a lot of people say things on Yik Yak they wouldn’t say in person," he said. "We need to be held accountable for our actions.”

Tenkiang added that he would push back on arguments in favor of complete freedom of speech and expression when they challenge people's humanity and that there is a difference between hate speech and free speech. He explained that this distinction not being recognized is whatspurred student actions during the gathering led by University President Christopher Eisgruber '83 at the University Chapel on Sunday.

Asanni York ’17, one of the students to make the demands during the gathering, said that if Yik Yak cannot be completely disabled, there should be a way for the University to regulate Yik Yak posts.

“Maybe there could be a way for someone to moderate Yik Yak so no one can ... make racist, sexist or transphobic or homophobic comments,” York said.