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THE MIRROR Controversial App Fizz Takes Over Fairfield University

By Max Limric Managing Editor

Fizz is the social media app that has seemed to take over college campuses all across the United States, with Fairfield University being no exception as Fizz stormed into campus on Thursday, Feb. 2. The app prides itself on its anonymity, in which students can post about campus life: the athletics, social scene, academics and everything in between.

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Fizz has its roots in Stanford University, as an article written in Aug. 2021 from The Stanford Daily details. The beginnings of Fizz stem from Ashton Cofer ’24 and Teddy Solomon ’24, both Stanford University students.

The article writes, “the app, which launched at Stanford on July 29, [2021] has been embraced by both students living on campus and those away for the summer.” Launching under the name Buzz, the creators claimed that “[they were] hoping Buzz can be the glue that holds the student body together.”

In an article from The Rice Thresher at Rice University in Nov. 2022, author Bonnie Zhao quotes co-founder Teddy Solomon and his description of Fizz’s mission: “to provide people with a

With another post which writes, “Day 1 at Fairfield.”

Fizz continued to promote their arrival to campus that Thursday, as a table was set up at the bottom of the Tully stairs and donuts were given out to students who downloaded the app. Additionally, students were promised $15 dollars if they posted Fizz on their Instagram story.

First-Year Fiona Kileen posted an Instagram story advertising Fizz and she shared that “I found them on GroupMe and they paid through Venmo the same day.”

Recently, @fairfieldbarstool, the Instagram account that claims they are the “Official @barstoolsports affiliate for Fairfield University,” posted Fizz on their Instagram in a paid promotion, in which they claim that “Fizz has completely taken over!” They urge users to “Download Fizz.”

However, Fizz is not a revolutionary idea, as social media app Yik-Yak, which was popular last year at the beginning of first semester, has the same principles as Fizz. Like Yik-Yak, Fizz is anonymous as user identities are not disclosed and cannot be viewed.

One difference between the apps is that Fizz is also only available to college students, as those who register for Fizz must have a valid student email—an email address ending in “.edu”—whereas Yik Yak did not. Also similar to Yik Yak, Fizz’s privacy policy states that “Fizz is not affiliated with any school or institution.”

In her article, Zhoa writes that Solomon claims that anonymity is central to the app’s mission. But if the app requires your email, is Fizz truly anonymous?

Fizz’s Security Practices document states that, “We’ve ensured that at no point can Fizz users, moderators or our launch teams see another user’s Personal Identifiable Information (PII). PII on Fizz is stored in a separate secure database, which is only accessible by Fizz administrators.” safer, more private and engaging space online.”

Although moderators, users and launch teams can never see anyone’s personal information, Fizz administrators are able to.

Fizz then joined Fairfield University in 2023 with this same goal in mind.

Fizz’s Instagram account, @fizzfairfield announced the arrival of Fizz through an Instagram post on Feb. 2, posting, “Fizz is live at Fairfield.”

Their privacy policy also states that they “collect information in [their] log files when you use the Services. This includes, among other things, your browser and device type, language, access times, pages viewed, your IP address and the URL you visited before navigating to our websites.”

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