In the immediate aftermath of a shooting at Brown University, AP reporters uncovered an unexpected — and revealing — element of campus life: students were relying on a little-known anonymous app, Sidechat, for real-time updates, fears and rumors, often ahead of official university alerts.
Leah Willingham spoke with students who described Sidechat as their go-to platform for information during the chaos. Meanwhile, AP reviewed roughly 8,000 posts and comments made during the event — identifying themes, misinformation, and key moments where students attempted to verify or correct false claims. The posts revealed a raw, unfiltered look at how students processed the unfolding emergency and where institutional communication fell short.
Willingham and Mingson Lau also interviewed Sidechat’s CEO to understand how the app functions, how it is moderated, and why it has grown rapidly across U.S. college campuses. Anika Arora Seth created infographics and interactives that brought clarity to the app’s content flow and helped readers track how information spread — accurately or not — in the absence of timely official updates.
The result was a thoughtful, digital-first package that explored a new layer of crisis communication on campus, one that is increasingly shaping student behavior during emergencies.
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