Let's have a Sidechat
College students love social media. But one app is booming among young people: Sidechat lets them gossip anonymously and all it takes to set up is a school email address.
This might not seem too nefarious, but members of Congress are increasingly alarmed by the content found on Sidechat. Antisemitic posts on the social media platform highlight how the Israel-Hamas war continues to stir free speech debates between students and academic institutions.
Administrators at Harvard University and leaders at the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish anti-hate organization, sat down with the executives from Sidechat recently, urging the company to crack down on hateful content as college campuses nationwide devolve into turmoil over the fighting in Gaza. The meeting symbolizes new pressure on tech companies to maintain content protocols while also courting new users and maintaining free speech values.