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Trenton
-- Nearly eleven months after the Attorney
General’s Office and the Division of
Consumer Affairs began an investigation into
JuicyCampus.com, a website that publishes
anonymous gossip about college students, the
website announced today it was shutting down.
The
New Jersey investigation, which began in March
2008, was launched to determine whether JuicyCampus.com.was
violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act
through unconscionable commercial practices
and misrepresentations to users. The state
issued subpoenas to investigate whether the
website was complying with its own terms of
service, including a subpoena to an advertising
company that had placed ads on the website.
“New
Jersey's college students won't have to worry
about their names and character being damaged
anymore by the malicious anonymous gossip
that was the backbone of JuicyCampus.com,”
Attorney General Anne Milgram said.
Postings
on JuicyCampus.com included uncomplimentary
references to physical characteristics, race,
ethnicity and implied sexual experiences of
students. Students were often identified by
first and last names. “That practice
was dangerous, exposing students to potential
harassment and harm,” Milgram said.
New
Jersey’s investigation began last year
after the parent of a student attending an
out-of-state university, alerted authorities
to anonymous postings on the website that
attacked otherstudents.
As part of its investigation, the state issued
a subpoena to the site's owner, Lime Blue,
LLC, for information about how the company
enforced its User Conduct Terms requiring
users to agree that they will not post content
that is abusive, obscene or invasive of another’s
privacy. JuicyCampus.com told the public that
offensive content may be removed, but the
site lacked adequate tools for the victims
of anonymous gossip to report or dispute this
material.
The state also subpoened Adbrite, Inc., a
San Francisco-based online advertising company
that advertised on the JuicyCampus.com web
site, requesting information about the business
relationship between Adbrite and JuicyCampus.com
in order to determine how JuicyCampus.com
represented its operation to Adbrite, including
the types of ads and advertising keywords
requested by JuicyCampus.com.
Additionally,
the state sent a letter to Google, Inc., to
inquire about the company’s prior business
relationship with JuicyCampus.com. Advertising
provided through Google’s AdSense Online
Program no longer appear on JuicyCampus.com
As
the state pursued its investigation, JuicyCampus.com
began to make some changes to its website.
Instructions for reporting complaints were
made more prominent. Changes to the site's
policies and procedures were more conspicuously
disclosed directly on the website, instead
of being posted on JuicyCampus.blogspot. JuicyCampus.com
adopted the TRUSTe Web Privacy Seal Program
and inserted a “front door” that
asked users under the age of 18 to exit the
site.
“Despite
these changes, JuicyCampus.com retained many
of its most problematic features, including
the encouragement of anonymous postings, and
the failure to assure those who reported abuse
that their complaints would be responded to
and acted upon,’’ Milgram said.
As
JuicyCampus.com expanded to include ten NJ
college campuses, the Attorney General reached
out to 65 New Jersey college and university
deans and asked them to make cyber-safety
a priority on campus. As a result, Division
of Consumer Affairs Director David Szuchman
began to work with college administrators,
offering programs on Internet safety and working
with administrators to develop a set of best
practices.
Consumer Affairs’ E-Commerce
Investigative Unit led the investigation of
JuicyCampus.com, along with Assistant Attorney
General James Savage.
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