Yik Yak isn’t the rainbow-filled land its founders believe it is

During this year’s SXSW,  Brooks Bollington and Tyler Droll, the founders of Yik Yak, spoke about the app’s future and their mindset when they created it in 2013. Droll cited a story that showcases Yik Yak’s potential to bring people together:

Someone had gotten a box of cereal, and they opened their fridge and they were out of milk. And they post on Yik Yak, “Hey does anyone have extra milk.” And within a few minutes someone knocks on the door with a glass of milk. Now, imagine posting that on Facebook or Twitter. You’d probably be called weird, and no one is living a couple of doors down from you that is on Facebook. So it fits perfect with Yik Yak, connecting people who aren’t friends on other social networks, who are living in the same community, are nearby.

Whatever the validity of this story, I’ve never encountered anything like this on Yik Yak – I doubt you have, either. Because in a lot of instances, Yik Yak is an extension of the worst parts of Reddit and sites like 4chan.

Bullying

About a month ago, Boston College student Sarah Swallow wrote about the harassment she and her twin sister Katherine have received via Yik Yak. A lot of the Yaks about the sisters involved their appearance and unfunny sexual innuendos about their last name.

There are also instances of fat-shaming, particularly towards women. (Pssst: I’m sensing a pattern here.)

Racism

This has become more frequent in light of police shootings across the country, the formation of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and student protests at the University of Missouri. But it’s not just African-Americans that are the target.

In November 2015, Western Washington University, a school where non-white students make up just under 27 percent of the student body, cancelled classes after threats against students of color were made over Yik Yak.

Homophobia

Because apparently some people never matured past the sixth grade.

Threats of violence

A big reason these incidents have occurred is user anonymity. Yik Yak responded to these complaints by allowing users to create handles. From Yik Yak co-founder Tyler Droll:

Over time, we’ve seen people asking for handles in ways they can identify who they’re chatting with, and building even tighter-knit communities. So last week, we announced the introduction of handles where you can pick a unique username handle component and toggle on and off as you post.  But now, you can start to recognize people as you post and form relationships, build up your identity.

With the creation of user handles, I admire the effort. However, Yik Yak isn’t this unicorn or rainbow-filled land its founders believe it is. If communities are being created, a lot of them are filled with dickheads.

Despite all this, I see a lot of potential in Yik Yak. There are times where it isn’t a wasteland that makes you lose hope in humanity. You can make cheesy jokes, comment on the struggles of going to college, or apply Spongebob memes to every kind of life situation. That is why I keep coming back to it – that is until I see things similar to what’s above. If Yik Yak is to be taken seriously – if it wants to get past harassment, bullying, bigotry, and being a forum for potential school shooters – then it needs to stop pretending these problems don’t exist.