JuicyCampus gushes gossip

JuicyCampus, launched in August 2007, hosts school-specific pages for 60 colleges across the nation. Anyone can anonymously post on any page, and others can reply to their posts. Though JuicyCampus has a search function, the site is not indexed by any major search engines.

Since its arrival, Princeton’s JuicyCampus page seems to be getting more traffic than many other schools’. The site does not release statistics about traffic, but tallies show that the top posts on Princeton’s page have attracted more views than those at any other Ivy League school, with the exception of Cornell, whose student body is nearly three times the size of Princeton’s.

The three most-viewed posts on Princeton’s page — “Most overrated Princeton student,” “Sluttiest Girl” and “bicker surprises” — together have been viewed more than 10,000 times. These posts are typical of JuicyCampus — personal, mean-spirited and gossipy.

The site’s official blog states, “If you think Mary is a bitch, you are entitled to express that.”

“Toxic” tales

“In my opinion, JuicyCampus is trash,” sophomore class president Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10 said. “Its primary function is to create a safe haven for everyone who wants to belittle, embarrass and degrade other students by protecting them with a blanket of anonymity.” Diemand-Yauman, like many other Princeton students, sees the site as hurtful and dangerous.

Sarah Ferguson ’10 has firsthand experience with the negative effects of JuicyCampus. She was named on the site in several defamatory posts and challenged the anonymous poster to “grow a pair” and say something to her face.

“I have a right to stand up for myself. What was said about me was just so absurd and so wrong,” Ferguson said in an interview. “I don’t particularly want the entire Princeton population thinking I’m the type of person who is that sexually promiscuous ... It is unfortunate that I’ve become sort of a caricature of myself, but I think the people who are close to me know that that’s not who I am.”

Ferguson has vowed never to visit the site and forbade her friends from talking about it because “it is just so toxic.”

JuicyCampus gives its users protection from accountability and offers few options to those who feel wronged by the site. Though JuicyCampus’ terms and conditions state that users should not post defamatory content, it does not associate IP addresses with specific posts, does not allow posts to be edited or removed and, short of a subpoena, does not give access to its server data.

Matt Ivester, a 2005 Duke graduate, founded JuicyCampus as a place for students to share personal stories. In an interview, Ivester said the site is “meant as a fun place to hang out on the internet.”

“The reason we gave users the option to be anonymous was so they could post the things that most interested them without being afraid of the repercussions they could face from school administrators, professors or whatever. We want people to be honest on our site,” he said.

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Honest or not, people are telling lots of stories on the site. The site’s introduction at Princeton coincided with spring Bicker at the eating clubs, and since then Prospect Avenue has become one of the most popular topics on the site.

“It is not surprising to me that it is mostly sophomore names that are on there,” Ferguson said. “The intense competition that surrounds Bicker fuels it.”

“I think the site has induced a kind of paranoia within the student body,” Diemand-Yauman said. “Immediately when I heard about the site I was worried, ‘Oh no, is there something written about me?’ So what do I do? I go, I look on the site, and then I am perpetuating this hurtful cycle. If you are visiting the site you are supporting it — bottom line.”

Like Ferguson, Diemand-Yauman has stopped visiting the site. He also supports the idea of a school-wide boycott of JuicyCampus.

“I believe the site is dangerous. Lately, we’ve seen all too often what happens when people are ostracized, humiliated and hurt by others,” Dieman-Yauman said. “We have no idea what people go through daily and who might be on the edge.”

One of the most extreme examples of the tragic consequences that can result from cyber bullying is the recent suicide of Megan Meier, the teenager from St. Louis whose death was largely attributed to antagonism she faced through the networking site myspace.com.

When asked about the possible dangers of the site, Ivester admitted that “there are risks of cyber bullying,” but added, “I don’t think JuicyCampus causes those effects. We don’t encourage lies to be posted on our website in any regard.”

USG president Josh Weinstein ’09 said in an e-mail that he has received dozens of complaints about the site and has discussed the site with many administrators. “I think the proper response is for the student body to work together on stopping this problem,” Weinstein said.

Here to stay

A senior at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) was recently arrested for using JuicyCampus to post a threat to kill as many people as he could. As a result, students at LMU have created the “BAN JuicyCampus!!!” facebook.com group that asks for the site to be blocked from the LMU network. The group states that its mission is to “ban JuicyCampus from our individual lives” and has nearly 900 members.

Similar efforts have not taken place at Princeton, and University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 said in an e-mail that “it is not the University’s policy to prohibit access to websites for reasons not related to preventing criminal enterprises or acts.”

“My personal view is that it’s a slippery slope to ban access to sites based on content,” Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said. “As far as students asking ‘what do we do?’ the two main things are to not traffic the site or, if you’re on the site, counter bad speech with better speech. That is something that could be effective.”

Ivester said the site itself is protected from legal action. “We’re simply not in a position to judge the validity of posts,” Ivester said. “That is why courts have given internet platform providers immunity.”

Despite JuicyCampus’ legal status, many believe that the site has crossed the line. “It is analogous to giving a group of people loaded guns,” Diemand-Yauman said. “While it is not the gun’s fault if someone has to get shot, while it is entirely in the hands of the people, I feel like the format of this site gives us the tools to hurt one another and makes it very easy.”

Other universities have asked Ivester to shut down the site, but Ivester has refused these requests. In fact, he plans to drastically expand the site in the near future.

Over the next few weeks, JuicyCampus will roll out a number of new features, including a “Latest replies” sort and an e-mail alert feature that will e-mail users when there is a new post on a thread they are interested in.

Ivester said his most immediate priority is improving the site’s speed since JuicyCampus’ unexpected popularity has overloaded the site’s servers. The site has also received more than a thousand requests for expansion to new campuses, and this expansion will be taking place during the next six months.

These changes will make JuicyCampus faster and more accessible to students, professors, recruiters or anyone who wants “the juice.”

“This website is capitalizing on us as Princeton students,” Dieman-Yauman said. “That is something that we should never ever stand for. And regardless of our eating club, religion, sexual orientation or deepest, darkest secrets, we’re all Tigers. It’s about time that we look out for one another.”

See additional content in The Daily Princetonian's Opinion Section:

Point-Counterpoint: Should we block JuicyCampus' URL at Princeton?

Editorial: Turn lemons into lemonade

Op Art: Human constancy