PRINTCollege rumors hit the Web
Anonymous gossip sites invade universities
Kristin Kellogg
April 17, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Did anyone see that DG that got arrested at the bookstore?
Pike doesn’t roofie girls, the girls just get drunk and look for an excuse for acting like idiots.
JuicyCampus
JuicyCampus hosts message boards for 62 college
campuses. The site guarantees gossip that’s “Always
Anonymous…Always Juicy…” and pledges complete
anonymity, without censorship.
On March 10, George So, a junior at Colgate
University, in Hamilton, N.Y., was arrested after
posting a comment saying, “I wonder if I could shut
down the school by saying I’m going to shoot as
many people as I can in my second class tomorrow.”
Only a few months before, a student at Loyola
Marymount University, in Los Angeles, was arrested
for a post containing similar threats of schoolrelated
violence.
New Jersey is currently investigating the site
after a string of complaints from students at various
New Jersey universities. Some student governments
have called for administrators to block the site from
campus networks. The state hopes to shut down the
site for violation of the state’s Consumer Fraud Act.
AutoAdmit
AutoAdmit began as a discussion board for law
students but has become yet another forum for
malicious gossip.
In March, a Yale law student began to fear for
her safety and was concerned about a loss of job
opportunities after a plethora of threats and insults
appeared on the board. However, she was unable to
get the comments removed because she could not
uncover those responsible.
--Lindsey Howald
I witnessed four G-Phi girls in the bathroom snorting coke last night.
Are your ears buzzing yet? Give it some time. With the help of MUGreekGossip.com, the rumor mill has picked up speed in the past 18 months, and few scandals escape the all-seeing eyes of an anonymous group of gossip writers. MUGreekGossip is just one of a slew of national sites catering to young adults that harness the Internet’s power of complete anonymity along with the all-too-human vice of dishing dirty secrets. Other sites include JuicyCampus.com and AutoAdmit.com.
The dirt can range from the menial to the malicious. The point, according to MUGreekGossip’s owner — whose true identity is secret from site users — is to have fun. As for the harsher comments, the owner says, “it can be that something can be appreciated by some people more than others.”
But no matter how a remark is phrased, some wayward comments are downright offensive. For example, a string of recent posts aimed sharp insults, including claims of infidelity, at MU sophomore Blaire Vandiver, who is dating MU quarterback Chase Daniel. Vandiver is surprisingly unruffled by the comments. “I truthfully find it flattering,” she writes in an e-mail. “People talk about people due to jealousy, and that’s all it is … people just love to talk about a high-profile couple.”
According to the owner, MUGreekGossip has become a part of many students’ daily routines. The site gets 10,000 hits a day and has between 5,000 and 7,000 unique visitors every day. “It’s funny,” says the owner. “I was watching someone in class and they had their computer favorites. They went to Facebook, then they went to MUGreekGossip.”
The promise of anonymity for anyone who posts on the site provides fodder for people who can dish relentlessly without fear of being identified. But people don’t always remain anonymous. Two arrests of JuicyCampus users have raised legal concerns. For those who want to sue for libel, Internet perpetrators are notoriously slippery. “Just getting on the Internet and mouthing each other may not necessarily be a crime,” says Detective Andy Anderson, coordinator of the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force. “Typically, unless there’s a threat of violence or a threat to commit a crime, most police agencies wouldn’t necessarily investigate.”
Although the national sites have recently taken heat for threats that push the line, MUGreekGossip regularly scrubs the site for any material that would be considered libelous or racially offensive.
However, with little social or legal risk, users continue to make bold posts. “The fact is, our speech — whether it be over the Internet or down the street — is so free that it’s almost to the point where we’re inappropriate,” Anderson says. “People are less likely to stand up in an auditorium and start harassing, but they’ll do it on the internet.”
