Is JuicyCampus.com destructive? Legal? The average visitor to Juicy Campus will determine many of the posts to be obviously fictitious.
Juicy Campus founder Matt Ivester discourages slanderous and hurtful posts and maintains that his Web site is for entertainment. Whether fiction or non-fiction, legal or illegal, it is evident in the countless number of malicious posts, that Juicy Campus causes real harm to real people.
Juicy Campus appears to be in full legal compliance under the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Any poster found guilty of defamation should solely be held responsible for his or her actions. It is inappropriate for schools such as Tennessee State to ban the Web site from public use and could also be a violation of the First Amendment. Yet, we know that ethics doesn’t always overlap with law. We have a sense of morals and common sense that we use to guide our behavior.
Nonetheless, using an anonymous forum to harm named people is cowardly. How can people be so insensitive to not see how even jokes have hurtful consequences? Perhaps these people choose to attack others in hopes of neutralizing their personal insecurities.
Although it may be legal, it’s spineless to criticize others, while hiding behind the First Amendment. I hope these people, including Ivester, can inject a little kindness and generosity into their lives. Ivester’s initial intentions for Juicy Campus may have been pure: host a site to share entertaining anecdotes about campus life. However, the site has morphed into something else.
Ivester maintains a coldhearted attitude that is difficult to comprehend. He continues to proclaim Juicy Campus as not only innocent, but also, he practically casts the site as a pioneering forum of free speech, while remaining casual to the people it has harmed.
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 similarly guards many other anonymous web-posting sites, which don’t monitor their content either. However, many sites offer active user controls to help maintain the rational use and objectives of the site, while maintaining First Amendment rights. By choosing to not even let his users help guide the obvious indecency, Ivester is encouraging the cruel behavior. Also, most of these sites support a conversation that tries to meaningfully contribute to or benefit society in some way.
My guess is that few people will argue that “gossip” offers much of a contribution beyond trite amusement.
Juicy Campus may continue being used for hurt. However, I hope that DU students will set a positive example by having the maturity and intellect to raise the standard of what’s considered entertaining. We are fortunate to have the First Amendment. But it is a law that will always be exploited, and we must be responsible guardians of it.
