What is Sidechat? The controversial app students used during campus protests, explained

When the Los Angeles Police Department officers in riot gear Arriving at the University of California, Los Angeles early Thursday, the anonymous messaging app Sidechat was filled with messages trying to piece together what was happening: “Is everyone okay? I just heard that 8 police cars were passing by,” one message read. Others shared rumors about action by police and outside agitators and directed students to livestreams to watch events unfold.

Sidechat has taken on a new role on college campuses in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests and law enforcement response. has intensified in recent weeks. Posts on the app are anonymous, allowing students to freely share their opinions and updates, something they often cannot do on other platforms. But Sidechat’s anonymous nature has also fueled hateful rhetoric, university administrators say, raising questions about its role in spreading division on campus.

What is Sidechat?

The app launched in 2022 and was marketed to students as a digital space to talk authentically about campus life. Students log in with their university email address to access closed groups specific to each school – much like Facebook in its early days as a platform only for students with an “.edu” address.

But 20 years after the launch of Facebook, students today navigate a much more complex digital landscape fraught with concerns about online privacy. Just as protesters wear masks and scarves to hide their identities during demonstrations, anonymous apps like Sidechat offer protection to posters who share opinions on controversial topics without their name or even a username attached to it. their messages.

Sidechat is similar to a once-popular anonymous app called Yik Yak, which launched in 2013 and allowed users to see posts from people within a 5-mile radius. The app has been banned on at least half a dozen campuses due to concerns about bullying and harassment on the platform. Sidechat acquired Yik Yak in 2023. Fizz, another anonymous app founded a year before Sidechat, has also gained popularity on college campuses.

Fear, frustration and tension as protests intensify

CBS News examined Sidechat conversations at five schools where pro-Palestinian protests took place: Columbia, Harvard, the University of Texas at Austin, UCLA and New York University. While some articles called on students to join the protests, others criticized them for disrupting campus life.

However, criticism of the police presence and the university’s response has united many students. At Columbia, students expressed anger and dismay over the university’s decision to call in the New York Police on Tuesday to dismantle the encampment and clear Hamilton Hall, where some protesters had barricaded themselves. A video of a protester running down the steps outside Hamilton Hall was upvoted more than 1,600 times as posters alleged police used excessive force.

Posts from some university Sidechat groups said students were having trouble concentrating on their exams during the protests. A message on the UT Austin chat room said: “This is all very distracting for people and I think everyone deserves a curveball on their finals.”

Hate allegations on the platform

The anonymous nature of Sidechat enabled harassment and intimidation, college administrators and lawmakers said. The app has come under scrutiny by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce as part of its ongoing investigations into how Columbia, Harvard and other universities dealt with alleged incidents of anti-Semitism.

In an April 17 hearing with the committee, Colombia President Minouche Shafik said Sidechat was “toxic” and “probably the most egregious cases we’ve seen of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Racist comments took place on social networks on these anonymous channels.

In February, a 114-page complaint filed on behalf of Jewish Columbia students claimed that Sidechat was used to harass a Jewish student who removed a political flyer in a dorm hallway. Sidechat users shared the location of his dorm and encouraged students to vandalize his space, the filing states.

In January, Harvard asked Sidechat to do more to monitor “content regarding” its school group. According to Inside Higher Education, Sidechat assured the school that it would moderate posts to ensure community guidelines were not violated.

CBS News found several posts on college discussions using aggressive or obscene language to describe protesters on both sides of the issue.

This week, messages and comments on Harvard’s chat room denied or downplayed the idea that Jewish students might feel unsafe on campus. In a UCLA Sidechat group conversation, one student wrote that the protesters were “brainwashed sheep,” while another said they “only wish the worst for the people in the camp.” Posters on the UT Austin forum hurled similar insults at people participating in the protests.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has also seen protests related to the war between Israel and Hamas, has outright blocked access to Sidechat and similar anonymous messaging apps on its Wi-Fi. its campus after the president said in February that the apps had “demonstrated a complete disregard for the well-being of young people and a complete indifference to harassment.”

Sidechat co-founder Sebastian Gil did not respond to an interview request. Gil told USA TODAY in March that Sidechat has a team of 30 content moderators who review and remove posts that violate its terms of service against threatening, offensive or profane content. The app also warns users that posts containing students’ names will be removed.

Jui Sarwate contributed to this report.