ANONYMOUS TiP LiNE LAUNCHED Instagram account prompts action from administrators after highlighting sexual misconduct ARTICLE & IMAGES BY VIDYA ACHAR • DESIGN BY AMANDA REBOREDO ter of opinion or if Cheyenne’s posts referenced an official source identifying the two individuals as sexual assault perpetrators. Cheyenne could not confirm that her information was accurate, nor was she sure any of the other three defenses would apply to her situation. Since she was unsure Executive Director David Porter rolled whether any of the four protections would out UPA’s first anonymous tip line on apply in her case, and wanting to avoid March 30, one day after the sexual misjeopardizing her future in college and her conduct awareness Instagram account @ own reputation, Cheyenne decided to arawarenessforsurvivors.upa deleted eight of chive all eight posts. its posts. The account, launched on Still, Cheyenne said if she had March 24, was an anonymously-run known about the possibility of being account that allowed survivors of sued for libel before she started the sexual harassment and assault on account, she still would have posted UPA’s campus to share their stories the stories, as well as the students’ publicly and without identification. names. Stories were collected first through “Obviously, I would’ve been a litdirect messages and then through an tle more organized,” she said. “Like anonymous Google Form, with posts used a Google Form since the beginranging in claims from assault in ning, but there’s not much I would school bathrooms to a “grab a-- day” actually change. If I knew that it when multiple girls were groped could be libel, I think I would’ve just without consent. pretended I didn’t know and posted Cheyenne, the senior who owns everything anyways.” the account and whose name has Ignorance is not a viable legal debeen changed since being granted fense against libel. anonymity, received three direct But before all except her last post messages on Instagram and 14 rewere taken down, Porter saw Cheysponses on her Google Form. Her enne’s post naming the two students eighth post, uploaded on March 29, on his Instagram feed and Chen’s explicitly named two sophomores as text “came at the perfect moment,” repeated perpetrators and was liked Porter said. Porter and Chen dis90 times and shared 58 times. That cussed their next steps in a Zoom same day, Cheyenne announced she This confession was posted anonymously on call and Porter decided to comment was taking a break from posting “to March 28. It was liked 81 times and shared eight on Cheyenne’s last post about taking figure things out” and posted a link times. It is reprinted here with redactions to a break from the account. In his comto UPA’s then-unreleased anony- capture the voice of a participant on Cheyenne’s ment, Porter wrote he “wants UPA to mous tip line, which had been direct- Instagram account. be a safe place where students can ly messaged to her account by math to a person’s reputation—that opens up the be free to be themselves” and that “if you teacher Esther Chen. Chen had been scrolling through Insta- accuser to a possible lawsuit. The four de- call for help, [he] and the UPA staff will gram when she saw Cheyenne’s account; fenses against libel are truth, consent, opin- answer.” The idea for UPA’s anonymous tip line per mandated reporter requirements, she ion and privilege. Cheyenne would be protected from a li- was first introduced by Director of Student reported the account to Porter via text. “I took down the old posts after that bel suit if the two students were guilty of Services Andrew Yau in the fall of 2019 as [eighth post],” Cheyenne said. “I got a lot the accusations, if they consented to having a possible resource for cyberbullying vicof hate texts after that, saying, ‘Why are that post published, if the post were a mat- tims, but Yau said the tip line was sidelined Editor’s Note: Given the sensitive nature of the topic, names have been changed to protect UPA students’ identities. Trigger Warning: Mentions of sexual harrassment and assault.
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you causing drama? You’re ruining these boys’ lives.’ Honestly though, I’m not ruining their reputation. I’m just making it more accurate.” Cheyenne added that three or four other anonymous Google Forms implicated the two named sophomores. She also archived her old posts out of concerns raised by other students, warning her that she could be sued for libel. Libel is the written form of defamation—harm