Yik Yak on campus: Safe space to vent, forum for hate — or both?

At the center of a hate-speech incident at Western Washington University over Thanksgiving week was an anonymous-posting app many students use and many parents may not know about: Yik Yak.

It was the latest in a string of events across the country that have students, activists and administrators wrestling with how the anonymous-posting service, extremely popular with millennials, fits in on campus.

Some students see Yik Yak as a harmless distraction filled with campus in-jokes. Others say negativity and hate anonymously posted to the site overwhelm any feeling of community the app might promote.