The Imorality Of Yik Yak, By William Cohan

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In an article written for the New York Times, author William Cohan poses the question, “Should the smart-money crowd be held accountable for the harm caused to people who use the products and services created with the money that springs from their coffers?” (Cohan 1). The product he has in mind is a popular app called Yik Yak. It allows users to post messages on any subject anonymously on college campuses; the biggest issue this raises is the ability to post racist, threatening, or misogynistic messages without consequences. There have been petitions to shut down the app and that investors should bear some responsibility for financing it. I will argue that some of Yik Yak’s users are immoral, and that users should be held responsible for the …show more content…

There are responsibilities that come along with respecting others; it means we have to be individuals, and to be an individual we must behave independently of prejudices, personal preferences, or self- serving motives (Ingram, Parks 146). As individuals we are given reason and will; due to this we are members of the “kingdom of ends”. When people post spitefully they are not being respectful – they are allowing prejudices to control their behavior, which violates the respect that all members of the “kingdom of ends” deserve. Kant argues further that people should be punished for their wrong actions, which also supports my notion that users should be held responsible for what they are posting …show more content…

In short, posting a distasteful message just because someone else did is not morally justifiable. In order to live ethically, we must act consistently and rationally; anonymous hate messages would have to be posted by every single person, no exceptions, in order to be considered a moral obligation. Some possible solutions to the ethical dilemmas that Yik Yak causes are making the app less anonymous so users are more accountable for what they post. Currently, the only way to reveal who posted a “yak” is through a subpoena or court order. A different and more extreme measure would be to shut the app down completely. As I stated previously, there is an online petition with more than 78,000 signatures urging that Yik Yak be terminated indefinitely (Cohan

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