ChickSpeak

It spread like wildfire across over 60 college campuses within a matter of months and now seems to be - at least- temporarily off-line. Juicy Campus is making headlines through the media this month for what seems to be trash-talk on over-drive.

For those of you not in the loop, Juicy Campus is a Web site, founded on August 1, 2007 by Duke student Matt Ivester, which claims to have “the simple mission of enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses.”

However, some students are taking a stand against this and speaking up. (Thank you!) Check out one woman’s posting on YouTube about her thoughts on this. (Please beware that her comments contain some strong language, which ChickSpeak does not condone. Over all though, her message is encouraging and thoughtfully done.)

The site allows and encourages posters to anonymously post uncensored gossip and rumors — the juicier the better apparently — about others on campus. There is a separate section on the site for each college or university and posters don’t seem to shy away from commenting on specific student groups, srats and frats, and worst of all- individuals named with contact information given.

Some recent posts discuss the common stereotypes of a sorority, the breasts of a professor, sluttiest girls and sexiest guys on campus. Some posts even contain racist, sexist and anti-Semitic remarks.

Ivester, a former frat house president went to great lengths to keep his identity secret, continues to hold true to the idea that this is all about free speech and that neither he, nor his website should be held accountable for any damage done.

A recent CNN article even reported on a young women who became the topic of a slew of nasty comments at one school. She was called “promiscuous,” “ugly,” “overrated,” and even “racist.” All thing she says are not true.

Commenting to the reporter, Sunny Hostin, that she’s gotten over a thousand page views (meaning a lot of eyes have been on her posting) she stated that she felt like she had been kicked in the stomach when she saw was someone had written about her. She called her parents in the middle of the night crying. She’s lost weight, has trouble sleeping, and has become suspicious of those around her. She told the CNN reporter that it has ruined her freshman year — and will likely taint her entire college experience.

The only thing I can liken this experience to is middle school playground kind of behavior. We each inevitably have memories of finding out that someone you thought was a friend spread a rumor about you or learning that we were the focus of a less-than-kind joke, but the difference is that when actions like this go online, the whole world can see and read about your gossip. People who want to belittle you and destroy your self-confidence in the name of “entertainment” can do so in the MOST cowardly way- anonymously. These posters not only steal the opportunity for other students to feel confident and solid in their social surroundings, but also effectively take away their targets chance to have a voice or control in the matter.

Juicy Campus and similar Web sites are currently protected under Communications Decency Act of 1996. The Act aims to shield Web publishers from liability for libelous comments posted by third parties. The section states “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

Juicy Campus is one of those sites that openly hides behind its immunity, although I am willing to guess that the courts will quickly catch-up to this trend and create some better boundaries in the near future. The site’s Frequently Asked Questions page states: “There is no way for someone using the site to find out who you are. And we at Juicy Campus are not keeping track of who you are or what you post. In fact, we prefer not to know who you are. We like to think that famous people like Justin Timberlake and Beyonce are using our site. We love them …”

All I can say about this is that Juicy Campus is a prime example of what ChickSpeak strives to stand up against and speak out about. Here, our mission is to inspire and encourage our college readers and members, while supporting them to do great things in the world and grow in self-respect and confidence. This isn’t just for ourselves, but for the benefit of those around us, too, in our campus and local communities.

Juicy Campus, like a parasite, feeds off of lies, rumors and cowardly behavior. I’m not mincing words here, but boy, am I fired up over this. We as young women have got to stand up for the right thing and recognize the power we have to create positive change in our circles.

Assuming Juicy Campus stays off-line, good ridden. If it should go live again, I ask you to please consider staying off of this site. Some things are better left unsaid- or in this case- unread.