At USC, get rid of Yik Yak completely

Has Yik Yak ever done anything good for anybody? I ask that question with no sense of sarcasm: I cannot think of a single app with as much downside as Yik Yak, an app that allows users to post anonymous, 200-character messages to a platform accessible to anyone within a mile-and-a-half radius. Not only does the app encourage people to express themselves without any responsibility, it gives anyone from cyber bullies to blatant racists a widely read platform to speak with total anonymity. Universities across the nation should do everything in their power to keep it from infecting their campuses. Case in point: the latest controversy at USC.

In a Huffington Post blog, a USC freshman unleashed a slew of inflammatory accusations directed at Rini Sampath and Jordan Fowler, the newly elected Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president. The article, which reads more like a recap of The Real Housewives of Orange County, labeled the pair’s administration a “full-fledge nepotism scandal,” accused them of “vote buying” and referenced an “upswell of students who want the two impeached.” But when you take off the emperor’s clothes, it seems a bunch of Yik Yak posts over the weekend are the basis for every claim the blog makes (it contains no on-the-record statements or sources). Though the piece bordered on libel, it did have one good point: Despite so many student critics on Yik Yak, why was only one person at the “Meet the Candidates” event held before the election?

In a Facebook post, USG justifiably condemned the nonsense, but they lacked a proposal to move that conversation forward. Here’s one: The USG Senate should pass a resolution that requests the university take steps to end Yik Yak’s presence on campus.

Before you start on me for censoring free speech, consider that even Yik Yak knows that some people don’t deserve its service. After it spread to middle and high schools and brought with it rampant harassment and threats of school shootings, founders Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington constructed virtual “geo-fences” around 90 percent of the nation’s primary and secondary schools to prevent the app’s usage. The USC incident proves that this distinction might be arbitrary; 15 minutes on the USC Yik Yak feed will leave any reasonable person convinced that the maturity level of some folks at USC hasn’t evolved since the ninth grade.

Racism, bullying and public humiliation are intolerable in any civil society, and Yik Yak makes it easier for people to spread that vitriol with zero responsibility for it. The New York Times said, “[Yik Yak] has been used to issue threats of mass violence on more than a dozen college campuses, including the University of North Carolina, Michigan State University and Penn State. Racist, homophobic and misogynist “yaks” have generated controversy at many more, among them Clemson, Emory, Colgate and the University of Texas. At Kenyon College, a “yakker” proposed a gang rape at the school’s women’s center.”

It’s only a matter of time before USC gets added to that list. Oops! We already have. When black students at USC expressed support for constructing their own cultural house, similar to ones for other student organizations, one yak from USC — “Why would they open a prison on the Row?” — was printed in the Los Angeles Times. It reflected poorly on every USC student, but because of Yik Yak’s privacy policy, the writer will never be held accountable. The app, on the other hand, should be.

Such a proposal has limitations. People can still use the app if they are far enough from campus, and they will surely find other anonymous forums to spew their hatred. But USC, and any other university concerned with being a welcoming environment for a diverse student population, needs to send the message that this stuff is intolerable. It’s the beginning of what has to be a long and difficult conversation about campus culture, one which many USC students will tell you they don’t feel welcome in.

Yik Yak represents the worst reaction of our generation to social media: Instead of understanding that everything put online is public, along with our names, we’ve invented things that allow us to say things irresponsibly. Promoting this “no accountability” culture is the beginning of a violently divided society. If Yik Yak has done something good for you, I’d love to hear it. But my suspicion is, the folks who rant on Yik Yak run with the same crowd that criticizes their student leaders but won’t show up to meet them before the election. In that case, they might only notice that someone is trying to take Yik Yak away when the app disappears. By distracting its most ardent supporters from efforts to wipe it from existence, the app will have done something good for everybody.

Nathaniel Haas is a junior majoring in political science and economics. His column, “State of the Union,” runs Fridays.