Anonymous App 'Cloakroom' Is the Digital Smoke-Filled Room of Capitol Hill
New social app "Cloakroom" keeps talk on Capitol Hill away from prying eyes.
— -- The smoke-filled rooms of Congress are legendary as the place where deals are made behind closed doors. One app aims to protect the need for confidentiality in politics in an age when social media and email make an elected official's every move public.
A new app called "Cloakroom" provides an anonymous place for folks who work on Capitol Hill to talk shop away from the prying eyes of reporters, cameras or other politicians.
The app's name copies its real-life counterpart, Democratic and Republican cloakrooms outside the House and Senate chambers in the Capitol -- the storied smoke-filled rooms of Congress, as the app's creator Ted Henderson puts it. The app aims to create the same atmosphere for the larger community that works on the Hill to engage with on their smartphones.
"I wanted to create a community where people on Capitol Hill can interact candidly with each other," Henderson said in an email to ABC News. "There is a breakdown of communications on Capitol Hill -- not just between the two parties, but between elected officials and civic leaders. I hope that Cloakroom can help insiders build rapport and crack into third rail issues without consequences."
The idea is similar to apps like Yik Yak, which allows college students to post anonymous comments. Yik Yak is also location-based and limits membership to users with university email addresses, intended to keep content to a specific campus. The app is popular among students who joke about hangovers or professors, but the anonymity has also caused serious problems. Several campuses have tried to ban Yik Yak after users posted racist comments, bullied other students or even threatened violence.
Cloakroom is an extension of the professional workplace on Capitol Hill, Henderson said, and has a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate material. Even though identities are secret, it pays to keep it clean. Users can follow accounts with good content and users with more follows will rise to the top and become more influential, Henderson said.
Access to the app is limited to users whose phone location confirms they are in the Capitol complex or those who register with a staff email address.
Despite calls for transparency from lawmakers, as in the recent questions surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails, Henderson argues that nameless conversations can liberate discussion on sensitive issues.
"Under the cloak of anonymity, legislative staffers across party lines can discuss taboo policy areas like online piracy as a community of professionals without fear of damaging their reputations," Henderson said in an email.
A post on the app's blog describes Cloakroom as "a place where congressional insiders can slip away from the blind, hungry glare of cameras and speak openly and off the record."
So far, the app is more a home for snarky jokes than policy talk.
The handle "pickuplines101" wrote "Hey girl, do you use two phones or one phone?" a play on Clinton's comments in a news conference this week regarding her use of a private email account, even for official business.
Another user with the username “senmenendez” posted, “Anyone know a good lawyer? Asking for a friend.” The real Sen. Bob Menendez is expected to face corruption charges from the Justice Department.
Henderson's other app "Capitol Bells" launched last year. It helps keep members of Congress and their staff in the loop on ongoing votes and where their colleagues voted on different issues.
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