The controversial social media app Yik Yak has recently returned for the first time since 2017 after its acquisition by new owners in February of this year. The anonymous location-based app was popular among college students.
Created by Furman University graduates Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, the app allowed users to create and view a feed of posts, called yaks, within a five-mile radius. Users can interact with these posts and discussion threads by upvoting, downvoting and commenting.
Yik Yak was the ninth most downloaded app on the app store in 2014.
According to NPR, it was used by students on more than 2,000 college campuses by 2016. Since the app had a relatively small reach for facilitating posts, students could almost exclusively see posts made by other students on campus. However, this popularity had a dark side as it soon became the primary platform for users to anonymously post hate speech and cyberbullying, which occurred predominantly on college and high school campuses.
One of the most high-profile examples of hate speech and cyberbullying occurred in 2015 at University of Missouri. An anonymous user posted a threat of committing a shooting on campus, specifically targeting Black students. The user was later revealed to be former Missouri University of Science and Technology student Hunter M. Park, who pleaded guilty to the incident.
Because of the app’s rapid growth and its propensity for bullying and harassment, many schools, school districts and college campuses rallied to ban the app. To address the criticism, Droll and Buffington utilized an outside company to create geographic borders that prevent people from using the app on middle school and high school campuses.
However, this measure was not enough to turn around Yik Yak’s reputation; the app’s usage declined severely in 2016 by 76 percent compared to the previous year. In December of 2016, 60 percent of the app’s employees were laid off as the app failed to maintain user engagement. As the final nail in the coffin, Yik Yak announced April 28, 2017 that its operation would be shut down the following week.
Yik Yak announced on its website August 15, 2021 that the app will be making a comeback for iOS devices.
“We’re bringing Yik Yak back because we believe the global community deserves a place to be authentic, a place to be equal and a place to connect with people nearby,” the announcement read on the page “The Yak Is Back.”
The website also features a Community Guardrails page outlining what content is not allowed on the platform. Posts that include bullying and harassment, bigotry, violence and threats, explicit sexual content and sharing of personal information will be removed, and the user who created the post will be banned.
“We’re committed to combating bullying and hate speech on the Yik Yak platform by any means necessary,” the announcement continued under a section labeled “Our Stance on Bullying and Harassment.”
Users can also downvote posts that violate the Community Guardrails, and any post that accumulates five downvote points will be removed from all users’ feeds.
It seems like the new Yik Yak team is dedicated to improving the platform and making it a safe, more inclusive place for all. Time will tell if these promises will be a reality for users.
