‘Ethics’ app at Clemson allows students to instantaneously report on each other with texts, videos

The public, South Carolina-based institution recently announced it would become the first university to offer campus-wide the “RealResponse platform,” described as an “anonymous ethics reporting app” and a way to make the school “safe,” officials stated in a mid-October news release.

The Clemson Athletics Department has used it since 2016, and now it is being expanded to everyone; Clemson students, faculty and staff can use the system to anonymously text administration reports of “misconduct and integrity issues.”

“Students, faculty and staff can now send anonymous text tips, including photos and videos,” the university stated in the news release. “Activity on the platform is monitored by Clemson’s Office of Internal Auditing and the Office of University Compliance and Ethics.”

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Editors of the Tiger Town Observer also argued that “a real-time text message reporting system hands university administrators unwarranted, discretionary power to investigate third-party individuals.”

“These individuals may or may not consent to be videoed or photographed for wrongful misconduct allegations that others deem as ‘harassment’ or ‘discrimination’ according to Clemson administrators’ arbitrary standards,” the student journalists said in an Oct. 18 editorial.

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