Yik Yak

Yik Yak

Yik Yak website www.yikyak.com Type Anonymous social media Launch Date November, 2013 Status Active Product Line Yik Yak Platform iOS application Android Website www.yikyak.com

Yik Yak is an anonymous location-based social media application developed by Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington. Yik Yak serves as a local bulletin board based on one's location by showing the most recent and popular posts from other users around you. Yik Yak was created with the goal, "to create a way for people to instantly connect with everyone around them. As of now, Yik Yak is now located in over 2,000 college campuses across the United States". Although heavily concentrated in college campuses all over the nation, Yik Yak is still emergent outside of these communities.

Yik Yak thrives off anonymous submissions from users within a 5-mile proximity (Yik Yak prefers to call their posts "yaks"). The main page is viewable in two different formats. One consists of the most recent feed of Yaks users have made. The second feed is based on the most popular Yak, based on Yik Yak's upvoting system. Registered users are allowed to post new Yaks, upvote, downvote, and comment on existing Yaks. If a Yak gets enough upvotes, it will be moved under the "Hot" tab, where the most popular Yaks live. On the other hand, if a Yak gets 5 total downvotes, the Yak will be removed from the public feed. To incentivize interaction, Yik Yak uses a reward system through "Yakarma", so the more actions the user does within the application, the more yakarma they will have. Every upvote/downvote on a post, comment, or posting a user makes will be added to their yakarma.

Being one of the most popular anonymous social applications on the market, Yik Yak has issues with people abusing this platform by posting threats to the public and cyberbullying other users.

History

Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington first came up the idea for this app when they attended Furman University. They first meet each other in a programming class and their friendship only built up from there. Droll and Buffington were intrigued by anonymous Twitter accounts that were catered specifically to the Furman campus, and they wanted to recreate this experience in a phone application. However, it was not until they graduated when they wanted to take their idea more seriously. Doll and Buffington released the first version of the application to the Apple App store in November 2013. During January of 2014, Yik Yak started to become more and more popular. Atlanta Capital, which is an investment firm, decided to invest $20,000 into Yik Yak. During April of 2014, Yik Yak closed a $1.5 million investment deal and later a $10 million dollar investment deal with Vaizra Investments, with participation from DCM, Azure Captial Partners and other angel investors. Within one year of the applications release, Yik Yak was one of the top ten most downloaded social media applications of the year. Yik Yak has had tremendous success in US colleges, but its growth in popularity and support outside of the US is still very small. With how fast Yik Yak became popular, they won the fastest rising startup at the 8th Annual Crunchies Awards.

Similar Applications

Secret

News feeds from Yik Yak and Secret side by side.

Secret was an iOS and Android phone application that was created on January 30, 2014. The application was designed with the purpose of allowing users to share messages anonymously with their friends, friends of friends, or publicly. This anonymous sharing is very similar to Yik Yak, but Secret also modeled their newsfeed to be almost exactly the same as Yik Yak's newsfeed.

Although the initial launch and reception were very good for this Silicon Valley application, the app was faced with some legal issues in Brazil that halted their development. A prosecutor brought a bullying issue to court after being bullied while using Secret. The app allows for people out of the United States to address an issue of bullying by sending a letter to an American judge, which basically renders international users powerless. According to chapter 5, Article 1 of the Brazilian constitution, the article states that "the expression of thought is free, anonymity being forbidden." . Consequently, the judge ruled Secret's promise of anonymity unconstitutional. Due to people misusing the application like this, Secret's founder and CEO David Byttow decided to remove the application from the app store..

Whisper

Whisper is an iOS and Android phone application that was released on March 31, 2012. Much like Yik Yak, Whisper allows users to send posts anonymously and receive replies to other users nearby. The signature of Whisper is that whenever you post a message on Whisper, you have to choose a background picture and provide text that is overlaid on that picture. Even the replies to the original post have to have a background and overlaid text. However, when responding to a post you have the option to keep your message private between the poster and yourself, or you can reply publicly for everyone to see. The Whisper application has been criticized for requiring access to smartphone features such as the camera and contact list even though it is unnecessary. Whisper's privacy policy says that they reserve the right to turn over any information if any law enforcement has the jurisdiction to do so. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Hanni Fakhoury elaborated that: "You have to be very careful about selling a program as a secure way to secretly communicate, and then reserve the right to turn over that information whenever necessary."

Nearby

Nearby is an iOS and Android phone application that was originally launched in June 2010. The service has over 2.5 million users. Nearby was designed to help people connect with and develop friendships with people located nearby. Using the user's GPS capabilities on their phone, the app would compile a list of other nearby users. Through the app, users could send private text messages, photo messages, virtual gifts, and view other users' profiles. Unlike Yik Yak, Nearby is not an anonymous social networking application. However, on this application you can choose to display as much information as you want, including providing a different name than your real one. There is also a public “Live Stream” feature, which is very similar to Facebook’s news feed where you can see people's profiles. This differs from Yik Yak because you do not actually post to a public feed, but instead send individual messages to other users.

Features

Photo Sharing

Image of a yak that included a photo.

During July 15, 2015, Yik Yak started allowing their users to post photos. However, Yik Yak moderates the photos before they are actually posted, so there will be some downtime before your post is actually in the feed. Their guidelines are that you should not post, "inappropriate photos (anything you wouldn’t send to your mother), illegal content, or faces will be allowed in local feeds". While posting a picture, you are still allowed to post a comment along with it so the text does not have to be overlaid on the photo. Many users had been asking for this feature for a long time. Before they actually released this feature, they gave a few communities the ability to share photos earlier in order to provide feedback and ideas that they could use ".

Peek

During October 2014 Yik Yak released the feature that allowed users to view other Yik Yak community feeds. Particularly, you would be allowed to see into other US and international college's yak feeds. Giving the users the ability to search what area they want to see yaks from allows users to get an unfiltered look at what is happening in a certain area at any given time. Brooks Buffington, the COO and co-founder of Yik Yak said, “We’re building Yik Yak into a technology that fulfills a higher purpose of delivering organic and unfiltered truths, which cannot be said for other news mediums”.

Herd/Basecamp

On May 15, 2015, Yik Yak released the ability for users to set a basecamp for their yak feed. With this, users would be able to set their yak feed to a certain location even though they are not actually in that area. Once you set up your herd, you will have the capability to switch between posting in your local feed or your "My Herd" feed.". You only have the capability to set your herd once, so users have to choose their location wisely. Many users have wanted a way to still wanted to be a part of their campus herd, even though they were studying abroad or away for the summer. In addition, this new update allows users to now see trending locations, local and global herds allowed for more exploration within the community.

Yakarma

Yakarma points are used on Yik Yak. When a user first downloads the app, they start off with 100 points. This is the breakdown of Yakarma points:

• New Yak Post: +2 points
• Yak Reply: +2-6 points
• Upvote a Post: +1 point
• Upvote a Reply: +1 point
• Downvote a Post: -1 point
• Downvote a Reply: -1 point

There are no real benefits or rewards for having Yakarma points however you can see how much you interact with the app. They are a way to track behavior and engagement. Yakarma takes into account all your activity in the application including posts, comments, replies, upvotes and downvotes. Should someone want to, they can email the Yik Yak team to have their Yakarma reset.

Handles

Starting on March 8, 2016, users have the ability to create handles. Handles are like a username for users on Yik Yak. Users do not have to create a handle if they choose to remain anonymous. Also, users that do create handle have the ability to choose when they post with that handle. If a user posts with their handle, all other members of the Yik Yak community can see the handle with the corresponding post. When users first create their handle, they will be set to appear “on” by default. No two users can have the same handle and they will be given out first-come, first-served. Yik Yak has stated that they hope that handles will give users an option to express their own personality should they choose to use a handle. Yik Yak hopes that it will provide users “a new way to establish their unique voice in the community.”

Ethical Implications

Bullying & Cyberbullying

Although Droll and Buffington initially intended the application to be used only on college campuses, high school students also started using the application after hearing of the app's popularity. As a result, there have been many instances where students felt like they were personally bullied by other anonymous users across various age groups. For example, a 17-year-old by the name of Elizabeth Long attempted to kill herself but failed, resulting in other students using the app to encourage her to do so.. After unsuccessful attempts to shut out the application within her school by school officials, she started a petition to have the app regulated more carefully or to be completely banned from the app store. As of now there are over 80,000 signatures on a petition created on Change.org with these two requests. A couple years after the petition was created, Elizabeth had a meeting with the creators of Yik Yak in order to make a compromise". Responding to this, Yik Yak has started setting up geofences around certain schools, raising the age in the Apple Store and Google Play from 12 to 17 years old. Yik Yak has also changed to allow parents to block underage users from the app, specifically prohibiting bullying in their Terms of Use conditions. Yik Yak now also uses natural language filters to prevent the names of any individuals from being posted, as well as filters through any racially insensitive or insulting terms. The app also added moderators to review feeds and remove any offensive content that is flagged by users.

On April 25th, 2015, a student at the University of Michigan posted a Yak about his planned suicide, prompting a large response and discussion about mental health at the University of Michigan . The original post titled "Thank You & Bye" read:

"Goodbye, Wolverines. As stupid as it might seem, 4/30 will be my last day of existence. It is much easier to tell this anonymously than to my friends directly. They'll figure it out later. Thank you."

It was reported that the original Yak was taken down, but several students were able to take screenshots of the original post. Some students, however, even went so far as to reach out to the anonymous poster to meet up and talk. While these one-on-one meetings never made it to fruition, a large gathering was organized at the University of Michigan's Central Campus Diag. Approximately 15-20 students gathered on April 26th around 2pm dressed in maize colored shirts to show support for the original post and others facing mental illness, depression, and suicide

Banned on College Campuses

Multiple universities, including Saint Louis University, Augustana College, Utica College and Norwich University, have blocked Yik Yak from their campus wireless networks. While some think this is a violation of free speech, others salute the universities for protecting students from online bullying and hate speech.

Threats

Image of a threat posted on Yik Yak at Missouri University.

Due to the anonymous nature of Yik Yak, users have the ability to post almost anything unmoderated. There have been scenarios where users have abused this capability by posting threats onto the application. Specifically, there was a situation at Missouri University of Science and Technology where two students posted violent threats to targeting black students at their university. This was a news headliner during November 2015, but there have been plenty of other instances similar to this at universities across the US. On the topic of the Missouri University incident, Brooks Buffington said, “Let’s not waste any words here: This sort of misbehavior is not what Yik Yak is to be used for. Period. It is not condoned by Yik Yak, and it violates our Terms of Service".

Although Yik Yak is anonymous, when law enforcement is involved with a situation involving Yik Yak they comply on a "case-by-case" basis. Yik Yak can give into law enforcement subpoenas, court orders, search warrants, or emergency requests for information. Once that is approved, law enforcement can track down anyone that uses the application.

See Also

• Anonymous Behavior in Virtual Environments
• Cyberbullying

References

(back to index)