From time to time, the editorial board simply cannot come to a consensus around an issue — banning anonymous posting on forums like Yik Yak is one of them. We as two members of the editorial board would like to present a dissenting recommendation for the Administration as the College thinks about how to combat hate-speech, threats and pointless cruelty on platforms like Yik-Yak and Middfesh: why not ban them?
The most compelling reason not to ban these platforms is that doing so would impinge on free speech, which is certainly not something to do lightly. The Supreme Court has repeatedly defended anonymous speech in protecting whistleblowers, members of of religious minorities, and others. That’s real. Where it gets a little blurrier is with things like libel, posting inappropriate photos or directly threatening to harm someone else. It’s not always clear where the line is, but it is clear that you can’t actually just say or do whatever you want in online forums without consequence.
Here’s an example: recently, police arrested two students from the University of Mississippi for making seriously violent threats using Yik Yak. These are not isolated incidents. In fact, people are getting arrested all over the country for posting illegal yaks and the app has been disabled, or geo-fenced, within the vicinity of thousands of grade schools across the country to prevent teens from digitally tearing each other apart. Platforms like Middfesh or Yik Yak specifically target school communities, having identified an ever present need for people to be able to say terrible things about each other with a complete lack of accountability (sort of).
We say sort of because our freedom on the internet is actually rather dubious. Commenters can often be traced through their IP address, which is a digital signature almost as clear as a first and last name. The degree to which our actions on the internet can be tracked and controlled is scary, and it’s not at all a stretch to say that the U.S. government has many qualities resembling a police state.
Here’s one place, on the other hand, where we certainly don’t live under a police state — Middlebury College. The next time you get a citation as an 18-year-old for smoking and drinking to your heart’s content, you should think, “wow, I can’t believe how lucky I am to not be in cuffs, doing jail time, or community service. I am clearly more privileged in this respect than 99 percent of American citizens.”
This is a private institution and we are afforded incredible latitude to experiment and make mistakes (which we believe is a good thing — something that should be extended to all young people). What we give up by signing the handbook is the right to be awful to whomever we want whenever we want — a necessary and completely reasonable request to make of “adults” living, eating and learning together. Part of the reason many of us came to Middlebury is to be part of a tight-knit community, and part of what we give up to be here is absolute free speech. For those who say that to ban Yik Yak would be to set a precedent of censoring free speech, we argue that not to ban it is to set a precedent of allowing students not to be accountable for our actions. If anyone were to say some of the homophobic, misogynistic things said on Yik Yak they would probably be suspended if not expelled. Why, then, would we permit this speech to take place online?
Jordan Seman’s brave personal account on the following page of this week’s Campus calls direct attention to the cruelty present on forums like Yik Yak — behavior that goes directly against a laundry list of items from the Honor Code and the student handbook. This anonymous attack on a member of our community came in the form of an anonymous comment that was childish, idiotic and extremely hurtful — something that can be said of many postings on Yik Yak and Middfesh, which seem to be our forums of choice.
Most would hope that “adults” — having mostly developed brains who attend College — would be better than this. As it turns out we, as a group, are not. Apparently, if you didn’t get it by age 18, you probably won’t get it by 22. The challenge regarding anonymous posting is pervasive and is tearing holes in the communities across the country, as law enforcement works to keep up with the violent stream of threats and hate-speech popping up in seemingly innocuous forums and comments sections.
We as members of the Middlebury community do not have any sanctified right to engage in this kind of behavior. There is a precedent for colleges banning Yik Yak and there’s no reason Middlebury cannot, in light of pervasive misuse, restrict access to the app over our wireless network. With data plans, students can still use Yik Yak, but it will be that much harder and few students will commit time to it. Moreover, even if the ban is symbolic, it still carries an important message of solidarity to students who have been victimized. Why would the Administration not side with victims of abuse when presented with the opportunity? These forums do not promote dialogue; they allow students to air thoughts they should never have been thinking and at the very least should have kept to themselves.
If comments like these continue to color the use of platforms like Yik Yak or Middfesh, it is the College’s obligation to step in. Doing nothing, especially when a relatively simple ban is possible, represents implicit support for these spaces. If you want to reserve the right to say horrible things about your fellow students, you should have to put your name on it, hashtag your room number or better yet, do it in person. Chances are you’ll probably think of something better to do with your time.
