“Stay away from *****. He’s a rapist”: YikYak as an Anonymous Whisper Network in Greek Life

• In Event: Hate and Stigma Associated Victimization

Abstract

YikYak, the anonymous social media application, relaunched on college campuses in 2021. Since YikYak’s reemergence, instances of threats, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, and racism have continued to keep the application in the news. Although some colleges have successfully banned the application from university wi-fi, schools where YikYak bans were suggested or enacted faced criticism from students as they use YikYak to express student frustrations with the university or discuss an event happening on campus with more identity protection than would be possible on other social media sites. Following two years of data collection on a mid-sized public university campus, we explored how students on campus used YikYak upon its relaunch in 2021. Using thematic and narrative analyses, we identify one of most persistent themes in the anonymous posts (“Yaks”) was sharing information about alleged sexual assaults on campus, particularly sexual assaults connected to Greek life. We will discuss the use of YikYak as a community whisper network as a nuanced and counternarrative to previous discussions of YikYak harassment. Within this community whisper network, Yaks routinely named specific fraternities and alleged rapists, provided details of the alleged incident, and often, inadvertently, identified survivors of sexual assault.

Authors

• Della J. Winters, California State University, Stanislaus

• Raveena Bola, California State University, Stanislaus

• Sasha Burdsal, Arkansas State University