“We have received reports from students of ongoing and escalating anti-trans, anti-Semitic, and racist rhetoric, along with other inappropriate comments, that have been posted anonymously on Yik Yak,” said a March 24th email sent by the College to the student body, bringing into the spotlight a social media app popular here at Ursinus: Yik Yak. A brief scroll through the app reveals campus in-jokes about Wismer, complaints about homework, and the expected portion of crude humour. However, not all of Yik Yak’s posts are so lighthearted. Past posts and comments have referenced “88” – a Nazi dog whistle – and proclaimed such views as, “Being transgender is a mental illness end of story.” Consequently, the email said, Yik Yak would be blocked on campus wifi, though, according to the same email, “Individuals who choose to access Yik Yak may still do so using personal data plans.” Did Ursinus make the right decision?
Caitlin Cunnane, ‘27, is a regular user of Yik Yak. As a queer woman, she’s found herself disturbed, hurt, and “appalled” by the messages shared on the platform; she feels that a number of them were posted “just to be offensive.” “Half of the cases it truly was the case where certain groups were being targeted,” she says. “Why,” she asks, “do you have to really interfere with somebody else’s life like that and make them feel unsafe? … I felt some anger in my heart when I saw that.” Another student, who has requested to be referred to as Sara, says she saw frequent hateful attacks against “specific groups of people,” with a focus on the queer community. Gabriel Glassic, ‘27, however, offers a different view. Glassic, who says he posts infrequently but visits the app for a few minutes a day, considers himself to be a “free speech enthusiast,” and is the president of the UC Republican Club. Unlike Cunnane and Sara, he’s skeptical about the presence of hate speech on Yik Yak. To him, hate speech begins with threats of violence, not expressions of thought and opinions. While he didn’t comment on the presence of Nazi references, about the app he says, “I saw reasonable arguments that others might consider hate speech, but, no, I didn’t see [hate speech].”
Beyond the presence of offensive speech, however, an Ursinus student might find themself targeted on Yik Yak as an individual. Members of the Ursinus community are frequently referred to on Yik Yak by their initials; while posters can choose to be – and usually are – anonymous, it can be clear whom a post is about. Cunnane, Glassic, and Sara have all been the subject of Yik Yak conversation on multiple occasions. Both Cunnane and Glassic have been targeted for their association with the UC Republicans club – Cunnane being the former Vice President. Cunnane has also been the subject of posts ranging from sexual innuendos to comments about her appearance and personality. When asked about his experience of seeing himself discussed so frequently, Glassic, who “obviously didn’t like” being discussed on the app, said he still believes “people can say what they want.” Cunnane, similarly, feels that those who posted about her, “had a right to say it… but I still don’t like it… Why would someone go out of their way [to make that kind of post]?” Sara, on the other hand, says she was deeply hurt by her prominence on Yik Yak. “It was very hurtful. It made me very anxious, and it definitely had some effects on my lifestyle.”
In the end, the three students’ opinions on the ban were split. Glassic didn’t want to see the app banned, and has concerns about the line between free speech and hate speech, but feels that the school was “completely within their power to do what they like. They can’t ban Yik Yak entirely because it’s a third party app.” At the same time, despite being personally targeted on the app, he was never emotionally affected and feels no safer from harassment now than he did before. Cunnane, who was hurt by the posts made about her, feels much safer from targeted posts, but she also sees those posts as entirely separate from the ban of the app; as per the College’s email, the ban was primarily because of hate speech, not bullying:. According to Cunnane, “If people want to insult [others] on Yik Yak, that’s one thing, but targeting people who have different identities is quite another.” Both Sara and Cunnane think that the ban was ultimately a good thing, though Cunnane says that, if it were possible to make the app entirely unavailable – including over personal data – doing so would “censor [students’] freedom of speech.” Sara, on the other hand, finds it “unfortunate” that users are able to bypass the school’s Wi-Fi to continue using the app. She says she would prefer the platform inaccessible altogether.
In the end, Cunnane highlights the importance of recognizing the power of one’s words online and recognizing the effect one’s posts can have on other people: “I think we can all agree that we want a better society. We want a society that cares about each other, and nobody wants to live in a place where there’s constant hate from either side spewed constantly. Generally, people just have to learn to be kinder.”