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Controversial Juicy Campus Website in Legal Trouble
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 19, 2008
Modified Apr 29, 2014
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 19, 2008
Modified Apr 29, 2014
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Juicy Campus, the multi-college message board where students anonymously post malicious comments about each other, is facing legal action in New Jersey, where prosecutors have subpoenaed the website’s records. The NJ Attorney General is trying to bring the site down on a technicality of sorts, by accusing Juicy Campus of violating the state's Consumer Fraud Act - because while the site claims it doesn't allow offensive material, there is no way for users to report or dispute slanderous comments.
Since it was founded by Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity brother Matt Ivester in August 2007, Juicy Campus has cooperated with police seeking people who post about the occasional shooting spree. But students like the Yale sophomore whose appearances in gay pornography were revealed on JuicyCampus, or the 21-year-old Baylor junior who was named the ‘Biggest Slut on Campus,’ have few legal options. The founder of Reputation Defender tells the Times that “legally, Juicy Campus is fully, absolutely immune, no matter what it runs on its site from users, just like AOL is not responsible for nasty comments in its AOL chat rooms.”
The New Jersey case is the first real legal action, though many campuses like Columbia are considering banning the site, and some Sigma Phi brothers are distancing themselves from Ivester because they site gives frat boys a bad name. Sigma Phi brother Aulden Burcher told the Times: “Look at what it does to the Greek system: rankings, sex, drugs, what happened at parties. Nobody is made better by it.” Thanks to Juicy Campus, people are getting totally the wrong impression of fraternities.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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