have experienced harassment online, one Black-owned tech company wants to create a more humane way to communicate virtually. is a tool that aims to prevent users of online platforms—including social media and news websites—from hiding behind anonymous, written comments by requiring them to share their thoughts using their voices. It’s a Clubhouse-meets-Twitter concept: Yappa’s more than 400 clients, among them The Hill, Vox and PerezHilton.
“There’s just a lot of toxicity [when] you don't have to put yourself on that front line, you don't have to own your voice, you don't have to own your responsibility, you can be anonymous,” adds Dyer. “We wanted to provide a tool where people were going to be able to have civil conversations.” “We are a social media platform that encourages publishers to get back some of their audience that the social media giants have robbed them from,” says Sim. “We were really trying to put the power back in the publishers' hands to foster good behavior and give them the social tools that they need to keep their audience on their side.”
“We’ve brought utility to [radio] websites that would normally never really be seen by their audience,” says Sim, who now counts iHeart among Yappa’s clients. “You'd have to call upand wait 25 minutes for your 10 seconds of fame. Now you can just leave a ‘Yap.’ Ryan Seacrest uses the app on a daily basis to integrate into the program.”Black Entrepreneurs Day