Cyber bullying plays out on CollegeACB

Editor’s note: Due to the sensitive nature of this article, the alias “Sam” is used in place of the name of an IU student.  

While the Web site is only 14 months old, CollegeACB.com, an online discussion board, has already become a controversial site where students face homophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism and other forms of discrimination.

The Web site replaced anonymous forum JuicyCampus.com after it went under due to a lack of revenue. While College ACB, or College Anonymous Confession Board, was originally founded for students to voice their opinions and ask questions about college life, some of the more recent posts include “watch out for STD’s from: who should you be on the lookout for,” “faggots in Briscoe: name them” and “gay sluts on campus.”    

Sam, a junior, had never accessed the Web site before slanderous comments were posted on it with his name attached.

“Some of the things were very fabricated and the truth got twisted,” Sam said. “I know they say sticks and stones, but words can really hurt and this really hurt me.”

Sam is not the only one targeted on the Web site. While many students have suffered from the malicious comments posted on College ACB, the IU administration has no plans to act against the site, as it conflicts with First Amendment rights.

Instead, Dean of Students Pete Goldsmith said students should ignore College ACB.

“I don’t think attention should be brought to the site, it just makes people curious,” Goldsmith said. “If students become isolated or depressed because of this Web site, they should reach out to campus services and get some help. I also know that students have peers who should not abandon them when they are the subject of a personal attack.”

However, for students who have been affected by College ACB, this might not be enough.

“You can sympathize with someone as much as you want, but you can never understand the devastating effects of College ACB until you are put in their shoes,” Sam said. “The best preventative measure is to destroy the Web site completely.”

Because of Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, there is also no legal action students can take against College ACB. Under this law, College ACB has no responsibility for user-generated content and also does not have any legal obligation to remove offensive posts. While the site offers a user-moderation button, which allows students to request the removal of a post, the site owner, Peter Frank, has every right to deny a deletion request.

While personal attacks are quite common on CollegeACB, other popular topics include fraternity and sorority rankings, in which both homosexuals and Jews are singled out.

Sophomore Evan Stein, the president of Sigma Alpha Mu, found some of the posts about the fraternity to be humorous.            

“Personally, I can’t help but kind of laugh ... that’s just the typical stereotypes, and I can’t take it with too much hate,” Stein said.

However, Stein stopped laughing after reading posts mocking the Holocaust.     
“I’m shocked,” Stein said. “The fact that people think this is one thing, putting it on the Web site is another. This is slander and anti-Semitic.”

According to internet law professor Fred Cate, unless a student can identify the poster, very little can be done at either the IU disciplinary level or the federal level.

As of now, Cate said it is extremely difficult to prosecute a person for cyber bullying, citing a case from 2008 in which middle school student Megan Meier committed suicide after being cyber bullied by a mother, Lori Drew, pretending to be a 16-year-old boy.

While the jury originally convicted Drew of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the charges were thrown out after the judge ruled that while she might have violated MySpace’s terms of service, she was not breaking a federal law.

And according to Cate, it can take a decade to pass a law, and to win a court case, a good deal of money and an infinite amount of patience is required. Even with these obstacles, Cate offered two solutions for students ready to take action against the site.

“Students should start by targeting the advertisers,” Cate said. “They should ask why they are paying for a Web site as valueless as College ACB. Companies like their reputations protected, and this might persuade them to stop advertising.”

Cate also suggested students boycott the Web site. While this may seem like a rather simple solution, Frank announced on the College ACB Blog that the site had a record day on Feb. 1 with more than 900,000 posts.

“No matter what a person has done, they don’t deserve to be publicly degraded so thousands can read about it,” Sam said. “After your name has been trashed, it’s never the same afterwards. Although I may be able to forget about what happened temporarily, it is always going to stick with me.”