JuicyCampus.com: crap or freedom of speech?
p2pnet news | P2P:- People love gossip,and they love to gossip.
“Always anonymous. Always juicy,” brags JuicyCampus.com, offering Latest, Most Discussed, Most Viewed and Juiciest as its top four tabs.
“We were founded on August 1, 2007 with the simple mission of enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses,” it says, going on, “C’mon. Give us the juice!”
But, “this is crap,” says a post on the site where, “endless threads of anonymous innuendo have been a popular Web destination on the seven college campuses where the site launched last fall, including Duke, UCLA and Loyola Marymount,” says Associated Press, going on:
“It recently expanded to 50 more, and many of the postings show they’ve been viewed hundreds and even thousands of times.
However, ” JuicyCampus has proved so poisonous there are signs of a backlash.”
“Time to grow up, children” says the post mentioned above. “This is middle school mentality at its best. You’re in college, boys and girls.Start acting like adults and think about what you’re doing to your fellow human beings. It’s called empathy. got any?”
And, “I can’t wait till you guys grow up….then have kids…then your loser daughter will have her name plastered all over a site like this,” says another.
“Hope you have good insurance through your menial paying job to support all of her herpes medication. Hope she doesn’t slit her wrists from depression because of people just like yourselves.
“Boy, I bet all your parents are proud their money is so well spent. The future of America, folks…sigh.”
Says a third post:
“I’ve heard this girl has hooked up with like 4 or 5 guys in the last few months in her own section…hasn’t anyone ever heard of keeping the section incest to a minimum?! DOWN WITH HOMOSECTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS! They are nothing but trouble!!”
But there’s worse. A lot worse and, “student leaders, newspaper editorials and posters on the site are fighting back – with some even asking administrators to ban JuicyCampus,” AP continues, quoting Andy Canales, leader of the student government at Pepperdine, which recently voted 23-5 to ask for a ban, as saying. “It is an expression from our student body that we don’t want this junk in our community.
The story goes on:
“The vote came after a long and emotional debate on the limits of free speech, and was swayed by stories from students such as Haley Frazier, a junior residential adviser. She had recently come across a teary transfer student who had been humiliated on the site barely a week after arriving on campus. ‘I can’t imagine the disgust she must have for Pepperdine if that’s what (students) say,’ Frazier said.
“College administrators say they’re appalled, but have no control over the site since students can see it outside the campus computer network. ‘They say all they can do is urge students not to post items or troll for malicious gossip – and hope that in the process they learn about how to get alon’g.”
Is it all about freedom of expression online?
Under US law, sites such as JuicyCampus, “generally bear no responsibility for what their users post, said George Washington University law professor Daniel Solove in the story.
Congress and the courts, “have gone overboard protecting such sites,” he says.
But in Solove’s view, “It’s one thing to protect the owner of a Web site when someone posts a defamatory message unbeknownst to the operator. But Solove says sites like JuicyCampus exist solely to propagate gossip and should be held to a different standard.’
In fact, notes AP, “JuicyCampus seems designed to shield its users from the threat of libel claims. The site’s privacy page notes that it logs the numeric Internet protocol addresses of its users, but does not associate those addresses with specific posts. That is unlike mainstream social networking sites, which do maintain such detailed logs.”
Says JuicyCampus
* It is not possible for anyone to use this website to find out who you are or where you are located
* We do not collect any information directly from you. You’ve never given us your name or email address, and we don’t want it.
* We do not track any information that can be used by us to identify you.
And under Tips for the extra-cautious:
* We do put a cookie on your computer. This cookie holds a unique ID provided by the JuicyCampus database and we use it to identify if someone has voted and what their vote is. We also use it tell whether you have already replied to a post and which your reply was.
- You have the option of disabling cookies on your browser, or deleting them after your session if you so choose. The website will still continue to function properly, and we’d have no way of matching your votes or replies to your computer.
* Servers do, as a matter of course, keep logs. This includes geographic information and ip addresses.
- If you are particularly concerned about hiding your ip address, there are several services that offer free ip-cloaking. Just do a quick search on Google and find one you like…
- Note: All that an ip address means is that you (or someone using your connection) were on the site. The logs do not associate ip addresses with specific posts.
What’s in the future for JuiceCampus?
Who knows, but under “Grant of Limited License by You to JuicyCampus” it states flatly:
“With respect to any content (including, without limitation, any news, reviews, entertainment, commentary, information, or other text) you post to this Site (“Your Content”), you agree and hereby grant to JuicyCampus a perpetual, royalty free and non-exclusive license to publish Your Content on the Site or on any other Site or in any other media throughout the universe. JuicyCampus may reproduce, modify, adapt, distribute and/or publish any of Your Content for any reason, in any media, at any time. For example, JuicyCampus may utilize Your Content for online or offline advertising which promotes JuicyCampus or the Site, without any royalty or payment being owed to you. Similarly, JuicyCampus may license Your Content to third parties, without any royalty or payment being owed to you.”
Also See:
Associated Press – Students Fight Back Against Gossip Site, February 17, 2008
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February 18th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
College students should try acting like the adults they claim to be and not behave in a way that they will be posted about.
If they were truely the adults they pretend to be; they would behave in a more grown up manner.
It’s not a websites’ fault that you can’t control yourself and have sex with every person that moves.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:20 am
This is indeed a tough world, and if you ‘can’t cut the mustard’….bail out! Nobody’s is stopping you from ‘exercising’ your prerogatives much less your actions! Grown up and take it like the man that you say you are…..
February 20th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Kids…it’s an ugly world! If you don’t want to be a target, DON’T sleep around and don’t permit yourself to be photographed nude or drunk. Everything you do will eventually come back around to “bite you in the butt.” Since you are in college to learn, be morally responsible FOR YOU.