Jaclyn Figg
Staff Writer
Snapchat first launched in September 2011 and has over 100 million daily active users, an average of 8,796 photos uploaded every second, and 4 billion daily video views, so it’s no wonder it’s a popular scene for ISU students.
Similar to the popular app Yik Yak, Snapchat allows users to send pictures and videos to their friends individually, as well as upload desired pictures or videos to be seen by everyone on their friends list; this feature is called “My Story.”
A new username, ISULIVE, has surfaced around the campus of ISU creating a My Story that has recently provided an inside look into students’ lives.
Updates on sporting events, activities and other things going on around campus can be seen on the ISULIVE My Story feed, but there have been accounts of nudity, disorderly conduct and drinking in areas that those activities are prohibited.
“We realize there’s some good things that have come from [ISULIVE],” said Steve Schaack, the assistant athletic director for media relations, adding, “But we’re also aware of some instances around campus where some things that haven’t been positive for the university have been on it, so we decided to take precautionary measures in advising students not to be on it.”
The weekend of Oct. 16-18, pictures were posted on the ISULIVE My Story feed that resulted in punishment for some student athletes.
According to Schaack he knows of just soccer students who were suspended.
“There are some soccer players who are missing the games this weekend for violation of team rules,” said Schaack. “We have recently advised all our coaches to tell their student athletes not to follow it.”
The Snapchat My Story feature works by Snapchat users first adding whatever alias the user is currently under, they can then send pictures to the user and he or she chooses what gets posted on the live story feed.
Some controversy surrounding the page has come to light, because if a person has added ISULIVE to their friends list, the operator of this username can take pictures or videos that have been uploaded to an individual’s My Story feed and repost them without permission from this person.
The operator of this site asked to remain anonymous but did communicate with The Bengal staff via the Snapchat personal “Chat” feature indicating he is a male student studying within the College of Business.
When asked if he can hijack snaps sent to other users or only from My Story uploads he wrote, “Only if the user sent it to me. I have no access to other users’ uploads.”
There have been other unofficial ISU social media accounts such as the Idaho State University Confessions page on Facebook. It was created for students to vent anonymously about campus activities and happenings.
“It reminds me of the ISU confessions page on Facebook,” said Nass Almansouri majoring in business administration. “It’s kind of the same thing, it’s all up to the guy who is reposting and if the guy was nicer he wouldn’t be reposting pictures like that.”
The pictures Almansouri is referring to range from students engaging in sexual activities, and other nudity to illicit activities such as drinking and drug use.
When the anonymous user was asked how he is able to hijack snaps he wrote, “I get this question a lot. My answer is always this: you are a college student, look it up.”
After probing by Bengal staff the user admitted using third-party applications to take others’ pictures sent to him or uploaded to their own My Story feed for use as his own.
“You can’t steal people’s pictures from their stories and just post them, that’s really not cool,” said Almansouri.
In 2013 Snapchat servers were breached in what the media dubbed, “The Snappening.” A total of approximately 90,000 photos and 9,000 videos were stolen off the mobile app.
The operator of the ISULIVE account wrote that he ignores 50 percent of what he receives.
Perhaps the operator goes by the honor code when it comes to determining what snaps are potentially dangerous or risky to post, but ultimately the user must add the ISULIVE username to their friends list. In the end anything that is posted eventually falls back on the individual users.
“There is no live version for Pocatello so I thought why not make it for ISU and everyone can post,” wrote the anonymous operator. “People started posting the college life and my account almost became a live TV for ISU.”
Shelbie Harris contributed to the reporting for this article.
