The college gossip Web site Juicycampus.com is still under attack - but from a new direction.
Though most outcry about the site over the past months has focused on its obscene content posted by users, New Jersey authorities are investigating whether the site itself has engaged in wrongdoing.
The New Jersey Attorney General and the Division of Consumer Affairs subpoenaed the company that owns Juicy Campus, Lime Blue of Reno, Nev., last week.
The state is trying to determine if Juicy Campus violates the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act by implementing "unconscionable practices and misrepresentations to users," according to a statement from the New Jersey Attorney General's office.
The subpoena is an attempt to clarify whether Juicy Campus enforces its own posted terms and conditions and follows through with what it promises users.
The subpoena requests information about how the company selects which campuses to support, how it verifies the school affiliations of posters and how it ensures that users under age 18 have parental consent before using Juicy Campus.
Under Juicy Campus' terms and conditions, posters agree not to upload or post any content that is "defamatory, obscene, libelous or invasive of another's privacy."
Juicy Campus tells the public it can remove this content, but "the site apparently lacks tools to report or dispute this material," according to the statement.
"Misrepresentation to the public by businesses violates our Consumer Fraud Act," New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said in the statement.
A Juicy Campus spokeswoman declined to comment on the subpoenas.
"This really is a wake-up call for Juicy Campus," said Clay Calvert, a Penn State professor of first-amendment studies and co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment. "The force of a government agency coming after Juicy Campus is a very different line of attack."
If New Jersey courts find that the site violated consumer-fraud laws, Juicy Campus could face monetary fines and would need to remedy its inconsistent terms and conditions to avoid facing further charges, Calvert said.
"Other states could follow New Jersey's lead," Calvert said, adding that most states have similar consumer-fraud laws.
New Jersey also issued a subpoena to AdBrite Inc., an online advertising company employed by Juicy Campus. The state also sent a letter to Google, though Google's AdSense Online Program no longer appears on the site.
The state is requesting information about the relationships between Juicy Campus and its advertising companies to determine how the site represents itself.
