Yik Yak

Yik Yak

Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Key people	Tyler Droll (CEO) Brooks Buffington (COO)
Industry	Internet
Employees	60
Website	yikyakapp.com
Registration	None
Launched	2013
Current status	Online
Written in	Java, Objective-C

Yik Yak is a social media smartphone application. It is available for iOS and Android and it allows people to create and view discussion threads within a 5-mile radius (termed "Yaks" by the application).^[1] It is similar to other anonymous sharing apps such as Nearby, but differs from others such as Whisper in that it is intended for sharing primarily with those in proximity to the user.^[2] All users have the ability to contribute to the stream by writing, responding, and "voting up" or "voting down" (liking or disliking) yaks.

The developers of the app, Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, are both graduates from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. The two started collaborating when they were placed into the same class where they learned how to code iPhone apps.^[3] After graduating from Furman University, they decided to go full-time with the project. Droll dropped out of medical school just before it started and Buffington put his finance career on hold.^[4] The two released the app in November 2013, and twelve months later, it was ranked as the 9th most downloaded social media app in the United States.^[5] Droll and Buffington have continued their work on Yik Yak, taking measures to ensure its sustainability.^[3]

On January 20, 2016, Yik Yak announced the web version of the app is available. ^[6]

History and financing

Yik Yak was launched in 2013 after CEO Tyler and COO Brooks graduated from Furman University. Yik Yak was originally funded by Atlanta Ventures and offices based in the Atlanta Tech Village, the city's premier startup incubator. As of April 22, 2014, the company announced that it had secured $1.5 million in funding from various companies such as Vaizra Investments, DCM, Kevin Colleran, and Azure Capital Partners. This funding came five months after Yik Yak was founded. This funding was intended to enhance the app, and to increase the amount of users both in the United States and overseas.^[7] On June 30, 2014, a little over two months after the initial $1.5 million, Yik Yak secured $10 million from its previous investors, along with Renren Lianhe Holdings, and Tim Draper.^[8] During the fall of 2014, with exponential user growth Yik Yak secured over $60 million from Sequoia Capital and other investors. This gave Yik Yak a valuation over $350 million, less than one year after launch.

Function

Yik Yak works by combining the technologies of GPS and instant messaging, allowing users to microblog to other nearby users. Before loading messages, the Yik Yak app determines the user's location and groups them into pockets of 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometre) radius zones. Within these zones, anyone inside the radius can post and read other people's “yaks”. Yik Yak is effectively an online bulletin board.^[2] The developers use a technology called geofencing to attempt to minimize cyberbullying. Geofencing allows certain areas, such as middle schools and high schools, to be ‘fenced off’ using GPS technology. The app is then no longer accessible in the fenced-off area.^[9] Yik Yak allows small communities to provide commentary on events in real time. When Senator Ted Cruz gave his speech announcing his bid for president at Liberty University, it was considered safe from protests because of the university's conservative background, but this did not prevent ridicule on Yik Yak.^[10]

Features

• Yakarma: Yakarma is a numerical score aimed to measure the active success of a user. The number increases and decreases based on the response of other users in a user's area to their yaks. Yakarma changes depending on the number of downvotes or upvotes, replies, and comments on a user's post. Receiving downvotes will negatively affect a user's Yakarma, while upvotes increase it. Yakarma is also affected based on upvoting or downvoting other users yaks.^[11]
• Upvote/Downvote: These are essentially user ratings on a yak. If a post becomes popular it will receive more upvotes than downvotes and display a positive number next to it. If votes on a post reach a value of -5, it becomes deleted permanently.^[11]
• Peek: This feature allows users to anonymously view other Yik Yak community feeds. Initially, the only other areas users could “Peek” into were US and International colleges. With the October 20, 2014 app update, users can now Peek into any college or city in the world. When users view other Yik Yak feeds, they can see other user's posts but they cannot vote or post into that community from their device. Users can only post in their local Yik Yak community.^[11]
• Other Top Yaks: This simply shows the google image result page from searching the work "yak". Usually just pictures of yaks (the animal).^[11]
• Photos: This feature allows users to includes pictures in their yaks. The company announced that photos are moderated and no inappropriate content, illegal content, or faces are allowed in local feeds.^[12] More specifically, these collections will display a grid of popular photographs submitted from anyone in a specific location.^[13]
• Hidden Features: Yik Yak also contains a word filter. When some words are posted it will remind the user they are offensive and ask them if they still wish to post it. Sometimes they will also let the user post, but take it down after a set time. If this is the case, the post will be removed almost instantaneously. This can be activated after certain words are used.

Controversies

One of the biggest criticisms of social media sites and applications is their inherent potential to feed the growing amount of cyberbullying.^[14] Due to the widespread bullying and harassment committed through Yik Yak, many schools and school districts have taken action to ban the app. These include several Chicago school districts,^[15] Norwich University in Vermont,^[16] Eanes Independent School District in Texas,^[17] Lincoln High School district in Rhode Island,^[18] New Richmond School District in Ohio,^[19] Shawnigan Lake School in Canada and Pueblo County School District in Colorado.^[20] Tatum High School in New Mexico banned cell phone use from the school due to Yik Yak,^[21] and the Student Government Association at Emory University in Georgia attempted to ban the app across campus, but failed to do so after immense backlash from students.^[22]

On May 13, 2015, Santa Clara University President Father Engh released a statement to all students after several racist remarks were posted on Yik Yak. He writes, “Hate speech, not to be confused with free speech, has no place at Santa Clara University, because it violates the dignity and respect with which each member of our community is entitled to be treated. Hurtful comments directed at individuals or groups diminish us all and create a divisive atmosphere of distrust and suspicion.”^[23] This highlights the ethical controversy of cyberbullying and racism within the social media app.

On October 3, 2014, The Huffington Post published an editorial by Ryan Chapin Mach titled "Why Your College Campus Should Ban Yik Yak," which asserted that Yik Yak's anonymous messaging boards "are like bathroom stalls without toilets. They're useless, they're sources of unhelpful or harmful conversations, and they're a complete eyesore."^[24]

To remedy the cases of bullying in middle and high schools around the country, Droll and Buffington amended the application to include geofences that work in the background. These unseen fences disable the application within their defined borders. At first these boundaries were installed manually by the developers, but it quickly became clear they would need outside assistance. They found this assistance in a Vermont-based company known as Maponics. Maponics “builds and defines geographic boundaries.” They happened to already have nearly 85% of the country’s high schools mapped, making it easy to block access to Yik Yak in those areas.^[9] The fences are currently in effect mainly to disable the app on all middle and high school grounds throughout the country. If the app is opened within one of these areas the user is displayed a message along the lines of: “it looks like you’re trying to use Yik Yak on a middle school or high school grounds. Yik Yak is intended for people college-aged and above. The app is disabled in this area.”^[25]

The frequency of bullying and harassment that happens on Yik Yak might be exaggerated by media stories citing specific incidents. Researchers have identified how Yik Yak is mostly used as a positive way to explore racial, ethnic, and sexual identities and to build a sense of community on campus.^[26] Others have identified how Yik Yak gives marginalized students a voice on campus.^[27]

In 2015, Yik Yak gained attention by being the subject of preventing a suicide attempt at the College of William and Mary.^[28] Yik Yak has been praised and criticized regarding preventing suicide. On one hand, it gives people an outlet to share what they are thinking and in many cases they receive support to seek help. On the other hand, due to its anonymity the ability for others to help is limited. There has been controversy over the legality of its anonymity and what role Yik Yak should play in sharing that information.

In December 2014, security researchers discovered and demonstrated a potential attack on the service, where a Yik Yak user could have their account compromised and be deanonymised (having their identity revealed) if an attacker was using the same WiFi network.^[29][30]

In February 2015, Yik Yak was exposed for systematically downvoting and deleting posts that mention competitors. The automatic system downvotes and deletes any posts that contain words that are associated with the names for other apps used by university students, including "fade," "unseen," "erodr," and "sneek." The downvoting algorithm, which assigns downvotes on regular intervals until the posts are deleted, appears designed to mislead users to thinking their posts are unpopular with their peers, rather than censored by Yik Yak itself.^[31]

In December 2015 the SLOG and the Seattle Times reported that a Western Washington University student had been arrested and released on bail after calling for the lynching of the student body president of the university. The racist threats were posted on Yik Yak.^[32][33]

Use in US politics

Digital director of Precision Strategy, Matthew McGregor has suggested that the 2016 Presidential election could be 'the Yik Yak election'.^[34]

See also

• Erodr
• Whisper
• Nearby
• Skout

References

External links

• Official website