International Law

The Washington Post's Marc Fisher describes an entry about a University of Virginia (U-Va.) student on JuicyCampus.com, a website that urges college students to "give us the juice" anonymously:

[it] names [her] and says she "will sleep with any guy." This sort of post has given JuicyCampus -- which features message boards for 50 colleges, including the recent additions of U-Va. and the Naval Academy in this area -- instant notoriety and the sadly resulting success.

The subject of that posting, a junior at the Charlottesville campus, didn't know that a thousand people had read the slur against her until I told her about it.

"Initially, I wasn't too concerned about it, although I did get angrier the more I thought about it," she says. "Everyone I know feels that the Web site merely serves as an outlet for petty and immature people who have nothing better to do with their time."

Not wishing to be associated with sexual sleaziness for the rest of her life, she contacted JuicyCampus asking that her name be removed.

Nothing doing. JuicyCampus guarantees anonymity to those who slime others, but disavows any obligation to those who are maligned on its pages.

From the site's FAQ:

" Is the site really anonymous?"

"There is no way for someone using the site to find out who you are. And we at JuicyCampus . . . prefer not to know who you are."

" How do I remove a comment I posted?"

"You can't. Once it's out there, it's out there."

The article goes on to look at the legality and morality of the site:

If the offending post is about you, too bad. "JuicyCampus does not remove content," the site says. "We encourage you to shift your point of view. . . ."

Legally, JuicyCampus is protected by a 1996 law that shields Web site operators from responsibility for nasty, defamatory or false material their readers might post.

And morally? The founder, Matt Ivester, a 2005 Duke University graduate who launched the site in August, delights in telling interviewers that his business is just "a fun place to hang out" and bears no responsibility for any slanders.

But you'd expect that of the creator of such a business.

While it is legal under US law, it perhaps surprising that many students seem to accept that they can't really do anything about being named on the site:

"I haven't heard any cry for action," says Daniel Colbert, executive editor of the campus Cavalier Daily and author of an editorial urging students not to post schoolmates' names on the site. "I'm in the journalism industry, so we tend to believe you should be responsible for what you say, but a lot of people in our generation don't have that idea. They don't expect that something that's published should be true."

"Students are more used to this kind of information being out there than the parent generation," says Lauren Tilton, president of U-Va.'s student council. "It's the nature of the Internet."

The student government at Pepperdine University asked administrators to block the site from school computers, and students at Texas Christian University appealed to advertisers not to buy space on the site. But at most colleges where the site has exploded in popularity, deans recommend combating bad speech with good speech, or just ignoring the site and hoping it will go away.

"We don't want to and we can't inhibit speech," says Pat Lampkin, U-Va.'s vice president for student affairs. "Do we condone what's on the site? Absolutely not. We see the harm things like this cause. We'd rather see a discussion about owning your own words."

Read more here. 

It is worth noting that the 1996 law that the article refers, s 230 of the Communications Decency Act, has no Australian equivalent.  As such, if such a site was set up in Australia soliciting juicy gossip from Australian university students, the site would find itself in legal trouble.

Update: I just noticed this post on the Juicy Campus Blog (note the "boring" bit added to the end):

Hate isn't Juicy.  A letter from the Founder of JuicyCampus.com

Hey Juicy Campers,

Thanks so much for your support over the past few months! We?ve grown bigger and faster than we ever expected, and we owe it all to you.

You?ve posted thousands and thousands of messages spanning a whole wide range of juicy topics. There are hilarious posts about drunken antics, helpful posts about classes and professors, and thought provoking posts about race, gender and sexuality. As you know, the site is pretty entertaining now!

Unfortunately, it hasn?t all been fun and games. Some of the things that have been posted have been mean-spirited, and we have received emails from people claiming to have been defamed on the site. Our hope for the site has always been that JuicyCampus would be a place for fun, lighthearted gossip, rather than a place to tear down people or groups.

We want you to be able to post about the topics that are most important, interesting and entertaining to you. We want you to share truthful stories about the hilarious things that you and your friends are doing on the weekends. We want you to post about the real-life scandals that are happening in Student Government, and in the Administration. We want you to give your opinions on the best and worst classes and professors. We want you to make JuicyCampus Juicy, not hateful.

So, we appeal to you to keep JuicyCampus the fun place that it was meant to be. Please consider whether your post is entertaining or just mean, and whether using a person?s full name really adds value, or if it would be just as juicy as a blind item. Remember that words can hurt, and the people you are talking about are real. Ultimately, JuicyCampus is created by our users, and we ask that you please take this responsibility seriously.

Keep it Juicy,

Matt Ivester
Founder, JuicyCampus.com

A (boring) note from our lawyers:

All users of JuicyCampus.com are subject to JuicyCampus.com?s Terms and Conditions, which can be read here. 

Please be advised that Juicy Campus is not the author of the posts that appear on the site. Rather, Juicy Campus is the provider of an interactive computer service. As such, pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Section 230, Juicy Campus is immune from liability arising from content posted by users.

Read it here.