JuicyCampus.com, an anonymous college gossip Web site with a network including over 60 campuses, asks users to "give us the juice."
But after a series of incidents in which students' names and reputations have been dragged through the mud, all the site has received in return is calls by student governments to ban the site and a subpoena from New Jersey's attorney general, along with an abundance of negative publicity from leading news outlets .
The Los Angeles-based site, which was launched in August 2007, allows students to create posts and reply to threads - which are organized on the site into topics such as spring break, sports, faculty, greek organizations and students - without using their name or any identifier. More often than not, the posts involve name-calling and exposed secrets.
JuicyCampus started as "a place to share stories," said Matt Ivester, the founder of the Web site and a recent Duke University alum. "It was basically me thinking about college and remembering all the fun and ridiculous things that happened on campus. I thought there should be place online where people can share this."
"On every campus, every day, hilarious and entertaining things are going on," he said.
For some students, these "stories" are traumatic exposures or slanderous accusations. Often, they are are inquiries into who are the "biggest man whores" or who has the "best ass," in the case of two recent posts on Brown's JuicyCampus site.
In March, the New York Times reported that an anonymous poster on the site shared a link to pornographic material featuring a sophomore at Yale. The student, who learned about the post from a roommate, told the Times that while he was "trying to zone it out," the leak prevented him from focusing on his midterms.
Since the site began, a student at Loyola Marymount University and another at Colgate University have been arrested for threatening to start shooting sprees at their respective universities, the Times reported.
For all the controversy the site has stirred up, Ivester said the site has been very careful to avoid lawsuits. But under current policies, the site only removes posts that violate copyright infringement, while hateful speech can remain up indefinitely.
JuicyCampus dictates that by viewing the site, the user is "bound by all of the terms and conditions" that are listed. Users must agree not to post material that is "unlawful, threatening, abusive, tortious (sic), defamatory, obscene, libelous, or invasive of another's privacy." JuicyCampus does not have a system to enforce these conditions, nor does the site claim that "the site or content appearing thereon are appropriate," according to the Web site.
Ivester likened the JuicyCampus terms and conditions to etiquette on a golf course. "On 13th hole or whatever, there's an honor bar," he said. "Why put prices on chips and drinks and stuff if people are just going to take what they want? The point is that users agree not to do these things."
According to New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, this lack of enforcement could be in violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. Milgram and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs have issued subpoenas against the site's owner, Lime Blue, LLC of Reno, Nev. and AdBrite Inc., the advertising company that generates revenue for JuicyCampus. Through the subpoenas the state hopes to learn more about JuicyCampus' operations, including how the site selects campuses and how parental consent forms - which the site requires for all users under 18 years old - are implemented in an anonymous environment, Consumer Affairs Spokesman Jeff Lamm said.
The two subpoenas, which were not issued in response to any particular incident, were given a March 31 deadline, but were both extended until April 10, said Lamm. Along with the subpoenas, the Attorney General's office has sent a letter to Google, which previously had an advertising relationship with JuicyCampus but recently severed ties with the company, according to a statement Google spokesman Daniel Rubin made in the Chronicle of Higher Education last month.
Following New Jersey's lead, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is also planning to take action against the Web site in the coming weeks, according to a report from WVIT, the NBC affiliate in Hartford, Conn. The Office of the Attorney General has not yet announced whether it has issued or will issue a subpoena.
Campuses have been taking action as well, trying to get less "juicy" through student government legislation.
At Pepperdine University, the Student Government Association voted 23 to 5 to strongly recommend that the administration ban access to JuicyCampus from university computers. The administration demurred, citing the First Amendment.
"I'm proud of the action SGA took," said Andy Canales, Pepperdine's student body president. "It drew national media attention, and led to a movement against this Web site."
Other students agreed with Ivester's Feb. 18 assertion to the Associated Press that Juicy Campus "can have a really positive impact on college campuses, as a place for both entertainment and free expression."
A staff editorial in the March 26 edition of the Washington Square News, New York University's student newspaper, wrote that Juicy Campus "could serve a wide variety of positive applications."
"Personal attacks aside, the Web site could be used to reveal secrets of campus life not widely known to freshmen and onlookers," the editorial said. "The best venues, professors and programs could be highlighted and supported by student opinion."
Regardless of controversy, the site doesn't appear to be leaving any time soon.
"I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion," said Ivester. "But censorship is a terrible way to address campus issues. Everyone should have the right to visit the site if they choose."
