Fizz at Amherst: Antagonism or Anonymity

In an email sent to the entire student body on Friday, the President’s Office expressed concerns over the use of anonymous platforms in engaging with controversial debate and discussion. The office described the use of platforms such as Fizz — Amherst College’s unofficial anonymous social media platform — as “corrosive to the intellectual risk-taking that is foundational to our educational mission” stating that “[b]y allowing members of our community to evade responsibility for their words, the anonymity of this content has given cover to racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and harassments and threats of individuals who express unpopular opinions.” This email came following a week of discussion, critique, and personal callouts on the platform in response to an article published in The Student that problematized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

The email then also became a topic on Fizz. Although the Office of Student Affairs and the President’s Office have shared concerns regarding the platform in emails dating back to October 2023, some Fizz users have expressed frustration with which issues the administration has specifically chosen to address. One user posted that “[B]lack students are disrespected and harassed on this app daily and the admin never responds.” Some users referenced specific examples of Fizz posts targeted towards Black students, many of which have also appeared on the Instagram page “Black at Amherst.”

Following this new development, Amherst students and faculty alike have been left wondering: Is Fizz and its anonymous posting beneficial or detrimental to our campus’ communities, conversations, and overall culture?

According to the platform’s website, Fizz is “a private discussion and news feed for your school with a full suite of features such as direct messages, polls, and images.” Two students studying at Stanford University founded Fizz in 2020, aiming to connect their campus community and “facilitate authentic conversations” through the platform.

This was best done through the guise of anonymity, where the only requirement for signing up to the platform is a linked .edu email. While each user is required to use their college email, all posts remain anonymous and unlinked to personal information. Although there is an option to create a personal username, most users opt for the simplistic title of “Anonymous.”

Fizz’s platform is unique in its layout, combining aspects of more scroll-based outlets such as Instagram and more forum-based apps like Reddit or 4chan. There are three layout options — “Top,” which displays the most upvoted posts, “New,” which displays the newest posts, and the platform-specific “Fizzin’.” This setting, the most conversationally generative mode of all, displays the most-favored posts at the top, while the least-favored fall to the bottom.

“If there’s something you’re afraid to say that may be morally connotated, being anonymous allows you to say the morally courageous thing,” Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Michelle Lee explained. “The benefits of anonymity allow you to speak your mind.”

But this layer of anonymity is a double-edged sword. “There’s the other side where you can feel a freedom to say the obnoxious thing, the not-so-kind thing,” said Lee. “When you’re anonymous, it makes [opinions] more extreme, where you could say the courageous thing, or the hurtful thing, and possibly influence digital aggression, cyber racism, cyber sexism, and all the cyber-isms.”

Other anonymous online platforms such as 4chan, which shares Fizz’s format of highlighting its most controversial posts on the front page, have historically been political havens for alt-right, white supremacist, and antisemitic rhetoric. Psychologists and political scientists alike believe that the layer of anonymity granted to the users encourages prejudiced posting.

Lee expressed concerns over the app’s volatile environment, stating that Fizz could pose a “huge risk to there being people who feel empowered to say courageously an opinion that could be politically polarizing or even discriminatory.”

Lee also discussed how the well-known bystander effect can worsen on online anonymous platforms: “It’s almost a digital scenario of a bystander effect, where something really bad could be happening, and so the question becomes, are we all going to sit there as a huge group and let it happen? Or is someone going to come out and say that was messed up, and then other people begin to upvote it?”

Given that Amherst is such a small campus, personal attacks on the platform are also a concern. Fizz can give anonymous users the opportunity to make posts about other students and use their names. This, in the eyes of the Amherst administration and some community members, leads to personal targeting and harassment.

When discussing the negative aspects of the platform, respondents of an anonymous survey conducted by The Student argued that “[Fizz] enables people’s worst thoughts and impulses,” others describing it as encouraging “posts [that] outright name people … in a way that would not be acceptable in person,” and curating “bullying and racism, more than solidarity.” One respondent, a self-proclaimed Fizz moderator, shared that they “can see that the vast majority of posts which reference specific people, especially in a negative way, are quickly removed.” Some felt that the app’s layout stifled discussion and inspired poor behavior, stating that “the number of upvotes can create a foreboding sense of danger on campus and uncertainty as to whether it will have real-life repercussions.”

Under President Donald Trump’s new administration, many students have felt increased anxiety in relation to their freedom of speech and political expression. In a climate where Trump called for visa revocation and deportation for pro-Palestinian protesters, Lee argued that the anonymity of Fizz may also be helpful to provide “protection[s] for students who want to speak up about an issue that is really contentious.”

Lee similarly thinks that Fizz can provide opportunities for community building around difficult conversations, citing the deconstruction of social norms that may dissuade such connection. “I think what’s challenging about these issues that particularly marginalized groups face is that it's not necessarily normative to speak about these issues, or many students may not have had experience or exposure to the level of dialogue and conversation coming from their hometowns,” said Lee. “So engaging in something politically and socially challenging … can offer a space to share something that maybe a student might not have ever heard of before, and then learn about it through another peer who talked about it on Fizz.”

Likewise, small-scale campus conversation and individual advocacy can create space for an empathetic and supportive campus community. Recently, posts highlighting artistic events and student creativity have garnered positive responses from Fizz users. During particularly challenging current events, students have also gone to Fizz to voice their concerns and gain solidarity among other anonymous users. And in particularly embarrassing moments of the Amherst experience — such as slipping on ice from the recent winter weather — Fizz has been an outlet for communal humor and humility.

Some students, when replying to the anonymous survey, described Fizz as a positive tool for staying connected with their community. One student claimed the platform “allows freedom of speech and a diverse set of discussions.” Another student felt that Fizz allowed students to “share compliments, support, helpful ideas, and build a sense of community.” Because Amherst students are supplied with a college email before their arrival on campus, some first-years are given the opportunity to use Fizz before they come to Amherst.

This, for Lee, is the promise of Fizz: In the wake of an increasingly apathetic world, the platform can give opportunities for Amherst students to encourage intercommunal empathy. “If one person said, for instance, ‘Shout out to the person who slipped in Val, that happened to me too!’ then there’s a rush of community solidarity. That’s the side of the internet I absolutely adore … Everyone’s going through something, right?”

While the prospect of exactly how Fizz will be used is completely up to each user, and while the aforementioned “corrosive” quality is entirely dependent on how students wish to proceed with the platform, there is hope for a space in which Amherst students can grow and perhaps thrive in a solidarity-based community building. “Students aren’t just learning — they’re learning from each other,” as Lee optimistically put it, “and I think that’s a beautiful thing.”