On November 11, 2015 Katz, Marshall & Banks partner Debra S. Katz sent a letter to James Goetz and Timothy Draper, chief investors in Yik Yak, Inc., urging them to address concerns regarding the harassment and cyberbulling of women and minority groups on college campuses across the country via Yik Yak. This letter follows an October 15, 2015 letter to Tyler Droll and Stephen Brooks Buffington, founders of the app, which asserted that Yik Yak must take progressive action to mitigate the torrent of cyberbulling, threats and targeting of women and minorities that the app facilitates.
The letter challenges the business-as-usual mentality Yik Yak has adopted in the wake of near-quotidian media reports of sexist, racist, and homophobic hate speech, as well as death and rape threats, and calls on Yik Yak's investors and board members to take responsibility for the unlawful cyberbullying the app facilitates. The letter outlines the measures already in place—“downvoting” user-led “flagging” to send posts to be reviewed by moderators from a Philippines-based company, and an automated pop-up warning that reminds users that threats are illegal— as being woefully inadequate to prevent abuses. As the letter points out, downvoting is by nature majority-rule, which little helps minorities and women who are often the target of objectionable postings. Flagging is a slow system that still relies on the good conscience of users, a conscience that is observably questionable and tenuous at best. The pop-up warning, which reads, “Pump the breaks, this yak may contain threatening language. Now it’s probably nothing and you’re probably an awesome person but just know that Yik Yak and law enforcement take threats seriously. So you tell us, is this yak cool to post?” is easily disregarded and also readily avoided by changing key violent words (e.g., “rape” to “grape”).
According to Katz, the investors in the app—Sequoia Capital having invested $62M and Mr. Draper’s $10M investment of his own money—"have a duty along with Yik Yak's creators to comply with civil rights laws and the legal assurances of Title IX: equal and safe access to higher education. Yik Yak provides a megaphone for hate mongerers who hide behind Yik Yak’s assurances of anonymity, ignoring the significant harm to the health, safety, and educational opportunity of young people nation-wide, particularly women and members of racial and sexual minority groups."
See more press coverage regarding the letter on Huffington Post and Business Insider.
