"Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose." Me and Bobby McGee, Janis Joplin
When Janis sang about freedom, it was in romantic, if melancholy terms.
On the internet, by contrast, freedom usually means the right to engage in the chaotic smack-down of anyone you disagree with. And, by chaotic smackdown, I mean the right to threaten people with whom you disagree with physical harm, rape, torture, public humiliation, and/or death. There's no better example of this right now than Yik Yak.
For the uninitiated, Yik Yak is an anonymous social media app. The preview on I-Tunes says that "Yik Yak acts like a local bulletin board for your area by showing the most recent posts from other users around you. It allows anyone to connect and share information with others without having to know them."
'Yaks' (anonymous comments) can only be read by people within 1.5 miles of the poster's location. The geographic nature of Yik Yak makes it popular on college campuses. There are enough people around to start conversations, and all of those people share some basic things in common (age, shared classes, etc.) that make them inclined to talk to each other.
Unfortunately, the anonymity of Yik Yak means people feel free to say hateful things they probably wouldn't say publicly, or even in the company of these same peers.
Last year, when students protested police brutality in Ferguson during peaceful events on American University's campus, for example, yakers on campus sounded like they'd just walked out of George Wallace's Alabama. For those with the stomach for it, here's a sampling of the vitriol.
Yik Yak has also been used to denigrate or otherwise humiliate people. A New York Times story on Yik Yak recounts a student reading a yak that compared her to a hippo. Professors aren't immune either. The same article recounts a series of yaks made during a class about a female professor. Few of them were printable in a family newspaper.
Most recently, students in a feminist group at nearby University of Mary Washington claim they've been stalked and harassed on yik yak. Students in the group report receiving threats for their activist work and having their real time movements on campus reported on yik yak--a move that made students feel like they were in constant danger.
So, how do college administrators respond to all of these problems?
Well, let's just say that in the hands of college administrators, freedom sounds like a flimsy excuse to do nothing.
To be fair to college administrators (and their PR hacks), most do issue public condemnations of the content of the yaks. But, the great majority stop there. After the ruckus at Mary Washington, for example, the university issued a statement that said in part that the university has "no recourse for cyberbullying" and directed students to complain directly to Yik Yak. Not surprisingly, companies tell victims to call police--and on a college campus that means calling campus police. And the buck passing begins.
Colleges can't make their students behave. But, they could certainly make it hard for them to misbehave. Many students and professors who have been harassed and threatened on Yik Yak argue that their universities should block access to anonymous apps like Yik Yak on campus wifi systems.
Unfortunately, most colleges and universities refuse to do so, justifying their inaction on free speech grounds. In fact, that's exactly how a spokesperson from Mary Washington explained the school's decision to a reporter with the Washington Post: "There are First Amendment concerns when you are a state institution."
I don't buy this argument one bit.
Blocking Yik Yak from a university's wifi does not block speech. Rather it blocks a particular venue for speech. And,universities have been blocking venues for free speech for years--the only difference is that these venues are in real rather than cyber space. Many universities, for example, have set up 'free speech'/'protest' zones. Normally, they are tucked far away from any venue that might be used to host speakers, and thus draw protestors. In effect, the university says you can speak freely on campus, but only in designated spaces.
It feels hypocritical then, to hear universities claim they can't do the same in cyberspace, especially when there's ample evidence that Yik Yak isn't just a venue for hateful speech, but threatening/dangerous speech as well.
Perhaps universities aren't worried about preserving free speech so much as avoiding lawsuits from Yik Yak?
No comments:
Post a Comment