Harvard Takes Aim at Sidechat Antisemitism

This transcript was generated automatically by https://otter.ai. Its accuracy may vary.

Yael S. Goldstein 0:03
From Plympton Street, this is Season Two of Newstalk. I'm Yael Goldstein. Sidechat, a popular social media platform on Harvard's campus, has come under scrutiny for an allegedly increasing amount of antisemitic posts, and criticisms of insufficient content moderation. Two of our reporters join us to discuss Harvard's response.

Joyce E. Kim 0:25
I'm Joyce E. Kim, covering College administration.

Michelle N. Amponsah 0:28
And my name is Michelle N. Amponsah. And I also cover College administration.

Yael S. Goldstein 0:33
Thank you so much for joining me, Joyce and Michelle. I'd like to begin with what is Sidechat? And how does it figure into the lives of Harvard students?

Joyce E. Kim 0:42
So Sidechat is a social media platform where college students can anonymously post, comment, or upvote and downvote posts. I think one thing that's important to remember about side chat, though, is that there is definitely selection bias, because not every college student uses it. Not every college student posts. But I'd say for the most part, you find a lot of advice, sort of unsolicited thoughts, memes, general reactions to things on campus, things of that store on Sidechat.

Yael S. Goldstein 1:13
So it seems like Sidechat is a social media platform where Harvard affiliates could say anything at any time with anonymity. So I'm wondering if you guys can tell us a little bit more about the rise in specifically anti-semitic content on Sidechat, following Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel?

Michelle N. Amponsah 1:31
Yeah, a lot of Jewish affiliates that we spoke to for a story said that following Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, there was an increase in anti-semitic posts. And so Jewish affiliates collected some of those posts in a folder and shared that with us. And another point that was made was that they seem to increase especially after the resignation of former President Claudine Gay.

Yael S. Goldstein 1:57
So how have students, faculty, and administrators reacted to these posts?

Joyce E. Kim 2:01
I think the general reaction was shock from students and faculty. And that comes from the fact that Sidechat restricts membership access to Harvard affiliates. So you know, for certain that these posts are coming from the people that you might see every day the people that you might be talking to, but you just don't know it because all these posts are anonymous. Obviously, there were reactions of sadness. We spoke to two Rabbis for the story, and they both described it as something that's profoundly troubling. And something that needs to be addressed immediately by administrators

Michelle N. Amponsah 2:34
Going off of what Joyce said, the existence of antisemitic posts on Sidechat also were cited in a federal lawsuit filed by six Jewish students against the university alleging that the university has allowed antisemitism to go rampant and unchecked on campus.

Yael S. Goldstein 2:52
So in your article, you mentioned that Sidechat is not officially offered, managed, nor endorsed by Harvard. So what can they do and what have they done?

Michelle N. Amponsah 3:02
Yeah, so an important caveat here is that Sidechat is a third-party platform that isn't owned or endorsed by Harvard in any way. So that definitely does restrict the university in what it can do in regards to content that appears on Sidechat's platform. So according to a university spokesperson, Harvard has spoken with Sidechat leadership, about the anti-semitic content on its platform, and received reassurances that content will be moderated according to Sidechat's community guidelines. Beyond that, steps taken have included a sample of content to help the Harvard University Police Department to determine if content warrants law enforcement involvement. Also, Harvard's information security and data privacy office will escalate complaints or reports of concerning content on site chat, directly to Sidechat leadership itself.

Joyce E. Kim 3:56
To add on to that from Sidechat we saw an announcement on January 16 that basically said starting May 2023, Sidechat accidentally began allowing all Harvard affiliates to access the site, but that it was originally meant for just undergraduates. So the announcement said that membership had now been updated so that only Harvard undergraduates could access Sidechat.

Yael S. Goldstein 4:17
Thank you so much. So going beyond site chat. How was Harvard working to combat the allegedly increasing amount of antisemitism and Islamophobia on its campus as a whole?

Joyce E. Kim 4:27
Yeah, so on January 16, Interim President Alan Garber sent an email to all Harvard affiliates announcing two Presidential Task Forces, one on antisemitism and the other on combating Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias. So that's one of the most concrete steps that the administration has taken to address these tensions on campus. The other thing that the university has done is they've launched an initiative called Harvard Dialogues. So essentially this first week of classes, there have been speaker events, panels, and discussions that college students, grad students, in fact, could attend. And these discussions are meant to foster open dialogue and provide a forum where people can discuss what it means to have differences and what it means to connect beyond those differences. However, it still remains to be seen whether these initiatives or any that might be forthcoming will actually be effective.

Yael S. Goldstein 5:15
Thank you for joining me, Joyce and Michelle to discuss Sidechat and the role of that in recent discussions about rising antisemitism on campus.

Michelle N. Amponsah 5:23
Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Yael S. Goldstein 5:28
This episode of Newstalk was hosted and produced by Yael S. Goldstein, our Multimedia Chairs are Julian J. Giordano and Addison Y. Liu. Our Associate Managing Editors are Claire Yuan, and Elias J. Schisgall. Our Managing Editor is Miles J. Herszenhorn. Our President is J. Sellers Hill. From Plympton Street, this is Newstalk.