College students now have a new social networking site to explore with the arrival of JuicyCampus.com.
Instead of listing relationships and movies, JuicyCampus.com allows students to list gossip about their fellow students and events on their campuses.
The idea for the Web site began with the CEO of JuicyCampus.com, Matthew Izester.
“Thinking back to the fun and the ridiculous things going on when I was in college, I wanted there to be a place for people to have that kind of fun,” he said.
The site exists for entertainment purposes only, and has become more popular as time goes by, with 56 colleges involved already and more chapters beginning every day, Izester said.
“Originally we used Facebook to promote the site, but we’ve kind of slowed that down because it got so much media attention,” he said. “Mostly it’s been promoted by word of mouth, which is entirely appropriate because it’s a site for gossip.”
Because the Web site acts as an intermediary for information transfer, Izester said there is very little legal liability involved in running JuicyCampus.com, regardless of what is posted.
“We have immunity for being held liable because we are not the speaker. Sometimes we’ll get complaints from people who are not lawyers; they just don’t understand how the law works,” he said.
JuicyCampus.com has caused controversy because people can post rumors without regard to the truth of their statements, according to the University of Delaware’s newspaper, “The Review.”
Izester, however, said he focuses on the amusement such gossip can provide, rather than the spreading of hurtful rumors.
“I just hope people can come over to the site and have fun.”

–Anne Bradley