The new Twitter account “Tweets By Anon” intrigued pop culture teaching assistant Cory Barker when a friend shared a link on his Twitter.

Anyone can send in tweets to tweetsbyanon.com. The messages are then posted to @TweetsByAnon, with no attachment of the Twitter account or name of the person who submitted them.

“Honestly, when I first saw the site, it surprised me it hadn’t already existed with other websites out there, such as ‘Texts From Last Night,'” Barker said.

Co-creator Leonard Mack and a team of entrepreneurs at Digital Xtreme Media came up with the idea of tweeting anonymously while brainstorming ideas for another business, Mack said. The group created the service this past year; it’s currently based in Phoenix, Chicago and Columbus, Ohio.

“Tweets By Anon is giving people a place to ‘vent’ and say things they might not normally say,” Mack said. “It also provides a place for people to read about issues and problems other people might have and realize they aren’t alone and other people share in their problems. Tweets By Anon can be very positive, and I believe it has had much more positive than negative effects.”

While the Twitter account was created for people to use as a positive outlet, some people have used the site to bash fellow students across college campuses, which sparked a cyber bullying debate.

The creators of Tweets By Anon do not promote any cyber bullying, but said they are also conscious of freedom of speech and have chosen not to moderate messages other than to eliminate spammers.

Several students who attend Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, have spoken up about the service. Some of the students who have been targeted by “unsavory comments,” however, have tried to keep a level head and ignore the negative tweets.

Capital student Richie Myers, president of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity and treasurer of the InterFraternity Council, represents some of the organizations that have been directly mentioned by Tweets By Anon.

“People can and will take their shots, but at the end of the day, we are confident in what we are doing as an organization,” Myers said. “We as an organization have chosen not to respond to anything posted about us on Tweets By Anon. It only fuels the fire and makes the person that posted it think they have successfully gotten to us.”

Capital student Amy Ferfolia said she and her friend Mackenzie Kyes were also mentioned on the site.

They were “slammed” on the website for a week straight, being called “every name in the book,” because of their close relationships with a fraternity, Ferfolia said.

“Ever since that one week, I have not been tweeted by that website, and I hope to keep it that way,” Ferfolia said. “Although all of those things were nasty, I have come to realize to not take any of it to heart. I’m not here to bash Tweets by Anon, because a lot of the things on the website are quite humorous, but it still has the potential to be a source of cyber bullying, which needs to stop.”

A contact link is available on tweetsbyanon.com and anyone can communicate any concerns, Mack said.

“We would rather focus on all the positive that has come from the site, including many comical tweets … to people just letting out emotions and pent up stress by tweeting stuff a little too private to put on their own twitter account, but feel it is something they need to say,” he said.

One shy student even asked a girl out to a homecoming dance via the site, Mack said.

Connor Thompson, a Capital student who has been regularly tweeted by Tweets By Anon, said the original concept was not for the site to be used as a burn book. Although Thompson has “gotten bashed,” he said he simply rolls with the punches and appreciates the comedy of the site.

“Cyber bullying is something to consider, but I would guess the site sticks around,” Barker said.