Thoughts on Free Speech

As of yesterday, JuicyCampus.com has shut down for good.  For those of you who are not college students, Juicy Campus was a website in which students could post anonymous comments, primarily gossip, in forums for various schools.  I’m not (in)famous enough to warrant mention on Juicy Campus; from what I could tell it was mostly used by Greeks.  But a lot of students were hurt by it, including a friend of mine.  So I was happy to see it die.

What caught my attention was this quote from Juicy Campus’ CEO Matt Ivester, who blamed the site’s closing on the general economic downturn:

Ivester thanked those who participated in “meaningful discussion about online privacy and internet censorship,” issues that stirred up controversy while the site was active.

The Justice Party platform is unapologetically in favor of freedom of speech.  Profanity, pornography, gossip- they’re all things that I personally dislike.  But short of endangering the safety of others by yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater, they are protected by the Constitution.  Juicy Campus had every right to exist free from censorship.

That said, one reason free speech is so important, aside from being a basic human right, is that it allows for a free marketplace of ideas.  And ideas that are in such poor taste as Juicy Campus should die a natural death.  I applaud the investors and advertizers who abandoned Juicy Campus, and hope that the students who previously used it will grow a spine and start saying things to their victim’s face.