Anonymous social networking application Yik Yak has warned its users that statements they make can get them arrested, because while those users can’t identify each other, Yik Yak can.
Co-founder and COO Brooks Buffington wrote on the company’s website that Yik Yak “may share information with law enforcement” in a blog post attacking recent threats of violence made using the service at the University of Missouri, notably one allegedly posted by St Louis resident Hunter Park, who was arrested on Wednesday morning “for making a terroristic threat”.
Prosecutor Dan Knight's release on Hunter Park: pic.twitter.com/7Knygo0HuH
— Alan Burdziak (@AlanBurdziak) November 11, 2015
Spokeswoman Hilary McQuaid said the network exercised its discretion over when to turn information over to law enforcement liberally: “Yik Yak cooperates with law enforcement and works alongside local authorities to help with investigations,” she told the Guardian. “We may provide information without a subpoena, warrant or court order when a post poses a risk of imminent harm.”
Yik Yak works differently from other social networks: rather than being keyed to users’ names and digital credentials, the mobile app is anonymous and allows users to post messages that can be read by people in their immediate areas.
As such, the app has endured public scolding over users’ proclivity towards consequence-free anonymous hate speech (often at universities, and sometimes directed at teachers).
Eastern Michigan University professor Margaret Crouch was so upset by the sexually graphic nature of remarks directed at her using the app that she told her union representative she was close to seeking legal redress. “I have been defamed, my reputation besmirched,” she wrote, according to the New York Times. “I have been sexually harassed and verbally abused.”
Now, the company appears to have had enough. “[T]here’s a point where discussion can go too far – and the threats that were posted on Yik Yak last night were both upsetting and completely unacceptable,” wrote Buffington. “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 [emphasis in original].”
