Should Yik Yak be banned at Emory?

Social media endows us with the power to post our every thought with reckless abandon. Most of the time, the verbal vomit is pretty innocuous, sticking to topics like Miley Cyrus’s disturbing new music videos and what you had for dinner last night. Sometimes, it can be a platform for voicing experiences and political ideas.

But when social media gets anonymous, it gets complicated. The smartphone app Yik Yak, which allows users to post anonymously, has gathered serious controversy on college campuses, and Emory is no exception.

Back in October 2015, a student on the Emory Oxford campus was arrested for posting a shooting threat on the popular app. On Emory’s main Atlanta campus, demands of building a “geofence” blocking Yik Yak in the campus area were made by the group Black Students at Emory University in response to racist posts found on the app. Strong opinions form amid the controversy, leaving the question: should we keep Yik Yak around?

The main argument against the geofence would be its restrictions on free expression on campus, mainly the fact that if one app can be banned because of a few individuals who use it to express bigoted opinions, what’s to stop other apps from being banned? Emory is a private institution, so it’s well within their rights to ban the app if they see fit. However, students such as the group Emory Young Americans of Liberty petition to keep the app at Emory while still acknowledging the problematic aspects of racist posts, saying “Free speech protects every viewpoint. If we cease the rights of others to speak, we also end the ability to change their minds.”

The Black Students at Emory claim in their list of demands that the inflammatory comments in the app count as hate speech as per the American Bar Association’s definition as “speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other traits,” in addition to referencing the shooting threat incident.

Taking all of this into account, should Yik Yak stay on campus?

As much as I hate to say it…yeah.

The Black Students at Emory have a deeply sympathetic case for the geofence. Racism is a systemic problem in this country, and Emory is certainly no exception. However, censorship is not going to solve the problem. The derogatory remarks made on Yik Yak are certainly hate speech, but when we encounter hate speech, we must recognize that the issue due to ignorant individuals who espouse these views and the racist culture that they take part in, not the medium by which they spout off hideous epithets and stereotypes.

There will always be a space for people to talk like this, whether its anonymously on an internet forum, on any popular social media site, in bathroom graffiti, in the locker room, etc. The medium will change. The people will not, unless we engage in critical discussion with them and attempt to educate them on why their words are so damaging.

I understand the frustration, though. We’re students who talk about big issues all day. Many of us deal confront issues of systemic oppression (whether it’s racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, etc) on a daily basis and just want a break from the bigotry to read about some guy that ate a pizza he left here over winter break. But banning an app is not going to accomplish this goal.

Part of using an anonymous forum is dealing with the fact that anyone can say anything. Unless specific threats are made, there’s not much that can be done. Fight it out in the comments or delete the app from your phone. But most importantly (like many students on campus are effectively doing both inside and outside of the classroom) continue the dialogue and education on these issues.