Feminists Call on Yik Yak to Act

Feminists Call on Yik Yak to Act


72 Women’s and Civil Rights Groups Urge Education Department to Issue New Federal Guidelines to Protect Students from Harassment and Cyber-threats Via Anonymous Social Media



WASHINGTON – Seventy-two national and local women’s and civil rights groups joined together today to urge the Department of Education to issue new guidance for colleges and universities to do more to protect students from pervasive harassment and threats based on sex, race, or LGBT status carried out through anonymous social media applications, such as Yik Yak. The groups are calling for the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to remind schools of their legal obligations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Students on college campuses throughout the country have with increasing frequency used anonymous social medial applications, such as Yik Yak, to target women students, students of color, and sexual minorities with harassment, threats and other forms of intimidation – with impunity. Earlier this year, students at the University of Mary Washington (UMW), for example, were threatened through Yik Yak with rape and murder after they spoke out against rape culture. In 2013, student activists at Dartmouth College who spoke out against sexual assault, racism and homophobia became the target of anonymous online posts declaring that they would be raped, lynched and shot.

“When Feminists United told the UMW administration that our members were feeling unsafe in light of the threats and hate being propagated on Yik Yak, UMW offered us no real solutions or protection,” said Feminists United at University of Mary Washington President Julia Michels. “Instead, we were told that the First Amendment prevented the school from taking action and that we should report the abuse to Yik Yak. The burden was placed on us – the targets – to protect ourselves even though the school has both the resources and the responsibility to create a safe campus for everyone.”

“The fight to achieve equal educational opportunities is far from over,” said Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) President Eleanor Smeal. “No woman, person of color, or LGBT student should be afraid to go to college classes or participate in campus activities because they are being harassed or threatened to be raped or killed. This must end. Colleges and universities must let everyone know that intimidating students, whether in person or anonymously through social media, will not be tolerated, instances will be investigated, and perpetrators will be held accountable.”

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http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/10/21/feminists-call-on-yik-yak-to-act/