By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
The state Office of the Attorney General and the Division of Community Affairs issued a subpoena to the owner of the gossip site for college campuses, JuicyCampus, last week.
The site provides message boards for approximately 50 colleges, including Princeton University. Anyone can anonymously post comments on the site, with malicious comments about individual college students or groups are common.
On Princeton University’s message board Thursday night, specific students were called sluts, others were told they deserved to be beaten and all Princeton students were accused of being wealthy and only able to attend the school because of family money.
Lime Blue LLC of Nevada, the owner of Juicy Campus, has been asked to explain how the company selects its approximately 50 “supported campuses,” as identified on its Web site, including Princeton University; how the affiliation of people who post messages on the site are verified and how the site implements parental consent forms for posters under 18, according to a statement from the Office of the Attorney General.
These and other questions part of an investigation intowhether Juicy Campus is violating the state Consumer Fraud Act. Lime Blue has until March 31 to respond to the subpoena, said Jeff Lamm, a spokesman for the Division of Consumer Affairs.
The state probe was prompted by a college student’s complaint sent to the Office of the Attorney General, according to Mr. Lamm. He declined to provide details about the student or the complaint.
”What we’re alleging is a violation of the Consumer Fraud Act has occurred, which is a civil statute,” Mr. Lamm said. “We’ve asked for terms of use on the Web site. Our contention is that those terms of use are not being honored. We believe that a misrepresentation has been made to the public.”
The state also issued a subpoena to Adbrite Inc., a San Francisco-based online ad network that Juicy Campus signed up with to receive ads, and sent a letter to Google to inquire about the company’s prior business relationship with Juicy Campus.
Information about the business relationship between Adbrite and Juicy Campus, including the types of ads and advertising keywords requested by Juicy Campus, are being sought by the Office of the Attorney General, according to the statement.
Paul Levine, AdBrite’s vice president of marketing said his company terminated Juicy Campus’ account about four weeks ago.
”We removed them as soon as we discovered they were trying to use our service. They were only around for a few days,” Mr. Levine said, responding to questions by The Packet by e-mail. “We regularly remove users who do not meet AdBrite’s standards.
”Juicy Campus used Google’s ad service first, before trying AdBrite,” Mr. Levine said. “It signed up with Google, and a few days later Google terminated them. Then they signed up with us, and a few days later we terminated them. Both Google and AdBrite were subpoenaed as part of the case being built against Juicy Campus. But there is no implication by the NJ attorney of any wrongdoing by AdBrite. We’re not able to disclose any detail on the subpoena, or how Juicy Campus represented itself to us, as it’s part of the ongoing investigation. But we are cooperating fully with the attorney’s investigation of Juicy Campus.”
Two Princeton University sophomores said they are happy Juicy Campus is being investigated, because they are so disgusted by the site.
”I don’t understand why someone needs to hide behind a computer and say nasty things about people,” said Tracy Ma. “Juicy Campus is the most absurd Web site, and I’m surprised that there are Princeton students who frequent it at all. I’m glad someone is finally taking a Web site like this seriously. What’s the point of having this kind of Web site anyway?”
Princeton student Trenton Arthur added that he doubts the Web site will be held liable for violating any laws.
”If the subpoena helps make people responsible for the things that they’re saying, I’m all for it,” he said. “Though in truth I am not very hopeful about the effects of the subpoena because I doubt it will lead to accountability for those who posted. Realistically, the best-case scenario is that Juicy Campus is held liable, but they haven’t done anything except make the space available. The real culprits, the students who defame one another under the guise of anonymity, shall probably escape unscathed.”
Special Writer Brian No contributed to this story.
