Despite bans at other schools, free speech guidelines mean YikYak is here to stay

Hidden under a veil of anonymity, Penn’s Yik Yak users are free to rant, joke, complain and event make threats without fear of being identified. And while other colleges have taken steps to prevent cyberbullying on the platform, Penn’s focus on free speech makes any similar action very unlikely.

At the University of Missouri, users posted shooting threats directed at all black students. At Western Washington University, posts called for the black student body president to be lynched. And at Emory’s Oxford College campus a student was arrested in October for posting a shooting threat.

Due to posts of this nature, American college campuses have seen a growing trend of banning the app on the school Wi-Fi network or enforcing a geo-fence — a virtual fence that does not allow the app to be used — around the campus.