It seems like only yesterday there were only a small handful of online reputation management companies online, now there are over 60 different “companies” offering online reputation management. In the beginning there were only companies like Reputation Defender & Reputation Armor that offered the full service of manipulating what the internet and search engines showed about you online. It seems like every week a new reputation management service pops up online in an effort to get a piece of this young multi-million dollar a year industry.
The Reputation Management industry is a very young industry and is still working on becoming an everyday popular topic in the business community.
With so many new services popping up online offering online reputation management it is becoming harder and harder to make an educated choice on which company can actually help you. Other factors are making it hard to make a choice also. One factor is that Reputation Management firms that have been online for more than a few months always have a lot of negative mentions online about them!
It is a very common practice in the reputation management industry for some not so honorable firms to post complaints about their competitors all over a variety of complaint websites in an effort to win more business and weaken a competitor’s online reputation. Most complaints against reputation management firms are simply made up and you can even see that some companies have the exact same complaint, word for word written against them. The older a reputation management firm is and the more popular it is, the harder it gets attacked by competitors.
When choosing a reputation management firm it is important to question the company about what tactics they use. You will most likely hear the same old pitch “We bury negative link with good links”…. In reality Reputation Management is not about a quick fix of hiding some bad links by burying them (not that this is not a good thing), it is also about control. A true reputation management firm will not stop at a quick content creation campaign to bury bad links.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Reputation Management firms, including our firm Reputation Armor, always advertise our use the term “Remove”.
Reputation Management firms, including our firm Reputation Armor, always advertise our use the term “Remove”. For example you will see ads online and text on reputation management websites that say “Remove Rip Off Reports” or “Remove Online Complaints”. The term “Remove” usually refers to the process of “Removing” online complaints and negative links from the top of search engine results.
In most cases it is impossible or highly unlikely that a reputation management firm can make or force a blogger or website owner to actually delete or permanently remove your online complaints from the internet. There are some cases where we have had information deleted and most of those cases were violating copyrighted material.
Why the reputation industry uses the word or term “Remove” so much is because that is what people use when searching for a service like ours. When someone finds a website that has something bad about them on it, their first instinct is I WANT THIS REMOVED, so they jump on Google and search “how to remove XYZ” or “Remove XYZ”.
Even an attorney can not force most websites to remove (DELETE) negative information. Sure, and attorney may tell you that they will work on the case for you and give you false hopes, but the fact remains that most websites are protected by certain laws like the CDA, Freedom of Speech, International Loop-Holes, and others.
It is very rare to force a website to delete something or scare them into doing so. In some cases even asking for it to be removed will cause them to talk about the situation online even more, thus adding fuel to the fire that you are trying to put out.
If you can hire a Reputation Management firm to help you bury or hide the negative links on search engines, the complaint links are as good as gone. The safest place for a complaint link is past pages 3 on search engine results. Statistically only a small fraction of internet users go past page 1 and 2 on search engines. If you can push negative links back to page 3 or deeper and have informative information on the first to pages of Google about you or your firm then you have accomplished your goal.
In most cases it is impossible or highly unlikely that a reputation management firm can make or force a blogger or website owner to actually delete or permanently remove your online complaints from the internet. There are some cases where we have had information deleted and most of those cases were violating copyrighted material.
Why the reputation industry uses the word or term “Remove” so much is because that is what people use when searching for a service like ours. When someone finds a website that has something bad about them on it, their first instinct is I WANT THIS REMOVED, so they jump on Google and search “how to remove XYZ” or “Remove XYZ”.
Even an attorney can not force most websites to remove (DELETE) negative information. Sure, and attorney may tell you that they will work on the case for you and give you false hopes, but the fact remains that most websites are protected by certain laws like the CDA, Freedom of Speech, International Loop-Holes, and others.
It is very rare to force a website to delete something or scare them into doing so. In some cases even asking for it to be removed will cause them to talk about the situation online even more, thus adding fuel to the fire that you are trying to put out.
If you can hire a Reputation Management firm to help you bury or hide the negative links on search engines, the complaint links are as good as gone. The safest place for a complaint link is past pages 3 on search engine results. Statistically only a small fraction of internet users go past page 1 and 2 on search engines. If you can push negative links back to page 3 or deeper and have informative information on the first to pages of Google about you or your firm then you have accomplished your goal.
Reputation Armor Defamation Defense
Defamation: Also called Defamation of Character.
Spoken or written words (commentary) on a living person that affects his or her reputation. It can be in regard to business or have personal implications. If a blog, website, or forum publishes something harmful about you that damages your reputation, defamation has occurred. Both libel and slander are forms of defamation of character.
In most states you have to actually suffer a financial loss in order to have cause for legal action.
Slander:
Slander is when someone says something negative about you, with spoken words. Internet libel is frequently confused with internet slander, but slander primarily means the spoken word. If I say something negative about you to all of my friends that hurts your business and is 100% not true, this is slander.
Libel
Libel is the written word, as well as the recorded word. As a rule this includes radio and television broadcasts. If a reporter says something about you that is false, it is classified as libel. This also generally includes written reviews on blogs and forums, as well as review websites like RipOffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com and several others.
Can you Sue for Internet Slander / Libel?
Someone has posted lies and harmful articles about you online and you want to know if you can make them pay for damages. The answer is maybe (But Not Likely). Many product review websites, like RipoffReport.com, My3Cents, Yelp, Complaints Board, and the rest are all protected by a law called The Communications Decency Act ( or “CDA,” : 47 USC 230), which completely protects website owners from being held libel for content created by their website users.
Could you possible sue the actual person that generated the content? Perhaps, if you knew who they were and could prove they did it without a doubt. The problem is that website owners don’t (By Law) have to divulge this information to you, nor do they have any responsibility to log any user info like IP addresses and email addresses. Identifying who to sue can be an issue when it comes to most the review sites.
Does a person have a right to speak their opinion?
Completely, it’s a privileged right that we all have, and it is a constitutional right. However, an opinion must remain an opinion and be stated as such. It should never include detailed facts that can later be proven fictitious.
Can a person defend defamation in court?
If you sue someone for defamation (libel or slander) and they demonstrate in court that what they said or wrote is true, you’re going to lose your case. Just because something is embarrassing or upsetting isn’t enough. If it’s true, you shouldn’t sue. You’ll only lose time and money and then in the end, your case.
Can I remove internet slander / libel from offending websites?
Almost certainly not, except if you can prove that the website owner wrote it and that it was 100% untrue. If it was user generated content (Written By A Site User or Member) they do not have to remove the content, nor reveal to you who wrote that content. It’s all sheltered by the CDA (Communications Decency Act). Rip off report and its clones have more or less all declared that they will NEVER remove user generated content.
They are 100% protected by the CDA and the user generated content is the foundation for their hideous, little business model. The online complaints on their website are what drives more traffic to their website and makes them revenue in one way or another.
They are never going to remove those reviews. But we can help. If you or your company are suffering from internet slander or online libel, please contact Reputation Armor at 888-358-2766 and let us explain how we can remove negative information from the first few page of the search engine results.
Spoken or written words (commentary) on a living person that affects his or her reputation. It can be in regard to business or have personal implications. If a blog, website, or forum publishes something harmful about you that damages your reputation, defamation has occurred. Both libel and slander are forms of defamation of character.
In most states you have to actually suffer a financial loss in order to have cause for legal action.
Slander:
Slander is when someone says something negative about you, with spoken words. Internet libel is frequently confused with internet slander, but slander primarily means the spoken word. If I say something negative about you to all of my friends that hurts your business and is 100% not true, this is slander.
Libel
Libel is the written word, as well as the recorded word. As a rule this includes radio and television broadcasts. If a reporter says something about you that is false, it is classified as libel. This also generally includes written reviews on blogs and forums, as well as review websites like RipOffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com and several others.
Can you Sue for Internet Slander / Libel?
Someone has posted lies and harmful articles about you online and you want to know if you can make them pay for damages. The answer is maybe (But Not Likely). Many product review websites, like RipoffReport.com, My3Cents, Yelp, Complaints Board, and the rest are all protected by a law called The Communications Decency Act ( or “CDA,” : 47 USC 230), which completely protects website owners from being held libel for content created by their website users.
Could you possible sue the actual person that generated the content? Perhaps, if you knew who they were and could prove they did it without a doubt. The problem is that website owners don’t (By Law) have to divulge this information to you, nor do they have any responsibility to log any user info like IP addresses and email addresses. Identifying who to sue can be an issue when it comes to most the review sites.
Does a person have a right to speak their opinion?
Completely, it’s a privileged right that we all have, and it is a constitutional right. However, an opinion must remain an opinion and be stated as such. It should never include detailed facts that can later be proven fictitious.
Can a person defend defamation in court?
If you sue someone for defamation (libel or slander) and they demonstrate in court that what they said or wrote is true, you’re going to lose your case. Just because something is embarrassing or upsetting isn’t enough. If it’s true, you shouldn’t sue. You’ll only lose time and money and then in the end, your case.
Can I remove internet slander / libel from offending websites?
Almost certainly not, except if you can prove that the website owner wrote it and that it was 100% untrue. If it was user generated content (Written By A Site User or Member) they do not have to remove the content, nor reveal to you who wrote that content. It’s all sheltered by the CDA (Communications Decency Act). Rip off report and its clones have more or less all declared that they will NEVER remove user generated content.
They are 100% protected by the CDA and the user generated content is the foundation for their hideous, little business model. The online complaints on their website are what drives more traffic to their website and makes them revenue in one way or another.
They are never going to remove those reviews. But we can help. If you or your company are suffering from internet slander or online libel, please contact Reputation Armor at 888-358-2766 and let us explain how we can remove negative information from the first few page of the search engine results.
Remove Online Defamation
Online defamation takes place everyday and likely ever minute on the Internet. It is a regular source of concern for individuals who fear that their reputations are not safe and sound. Regrettably, there are little legal options available to those individuals who are defamed online. The offending comments more often than not cannot just be removed. As an alternative, one must generally turn to online reputation management for a solution. This means removing the online defamation by way of making it irrelevant to search engines and thus making it rank lower within search results.
What is Defamation?
Defamation of any kind is, by definition, damaging to an individual, company, or organization’s reputation. Defamation can be extremely injurious to an individual or the trust and sales of a business, not to mention the general public perception of an organization or entity. It is universally known now that various companies will Google an individual in order to find more about them before hiring them. In the same way, would be customers will often Google (Search) a company seeking information and reviews before paying for products or services. Companies and organizations depend upon the Internet for a immeasurable number of reasons, not the least of which includes passing information onto potential clients. Even outside business reasons, individuals hardly ever like to see themselves or their projects being defamed. They want to go right the wrong, correct the errors, and tell the truth where there is a lie. It is a comprehensible feeling, but not always the best available option.
How do I solve it?
It is more often than not best to seek out a peaceful and trouble-free way to resolve the quarrel. If at all possible, emailing the poster privately and humbly suggesting their information is mistaken is a good way to go about things. However, some individuals will not take kindly to this and will resort to even worse tactics y publicizing your concern and adding to the issue. I know responding to the lies seems like a good idea, but it rarely is. It does little to nothing to clear your name and usually Google and other search engines take more recurrent commenting to mean the site should be ranked higher in their search results. This is contradictory of the intended effect. Often, it is okay to just leave well enough alone. If the offending comments do not appear in your search results and can only be found by those who are specifically looking for them, it might be best.
If the offending comment ranks highly in your search results, predominantly on the first page, it could be quite damaging. It is not often that these offending comments can be removed through legal means. First of all, lawsuits are exceedingly expensive and are in most cases are not effective when it comes to online defamation. This is because of a law, which is still highly controversial, known as the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA). Specifically, Section 230 of that Act, which relates to legal liability for third party providers of information. What this means is that if Person A posts defamatory materiel on Person B’s website, which concerns Person C–Person C cannot then sue Person B for publishing the material, unless Person B is actively involved in editing or publishing the material. Person B, in this case, is a “third party provider”, and is not legally liable for defamatory content that is posted on their website. In any case where the website is simply allowing “users” to make defamatory comments, rather than making them personally, they are not liable.
What is Defamation?
Defamation of any kind is, by definition, damaging to an individual, company, or organization’s reputation. Defamation can be extremely injurious to an individual or the trust and sales of a business, not to mention the general public perception of an organization or entity. It is universally known now that various companies will Google an individual in order to find more about them before hiring them. In the same way, would be customers will often Google (Search) a company seeking information and reviews before paying for products or services. Companies and organizations depend upon the Internet for a immeasurable number of reasons, not the least of which includes passing information onto potential clients. Even outside business reasons, individuals hardly ever like to see themselves or their projects being defamed. They want to go right the wrong, correct the errors, and tell the truth where there is a lie. It is a comprehensible feeling, but not always the best available option.
How do I solve it?
It is more often than not best to seek out a peaceful and trouble-free way to resolve the quarrel. If at all possible, emailing the poster privately and humbly suggesting their information is mistaken is a good way to go about things. However, some individuals will not take kindly to this and will resort to even worse tactics y publicizing your concern and adding to the issue. I know responding to the lies seems like a good idea, but it rarely is. It does little to nothing to clear your name and usually Google and other search engines take more recurrent commenting to mean the site should be ranked higher in their search results. This is contradictory of the intended effect. Often, it is okay to just leave well enough alone. If the offending comments do not appear in your search results and can only be found by those who are specifically looking for them, it might be best.
If the offending comment ranks highly in your search results, predominantly on the first page, it could be quite damaging. It is not often that these offending comments can be removed through legal means. First of all, lawsuits are exceedingly expensive and are in most cases are not effective when it comes to online defamation. This is because of a law, which is still highly controversial, known as the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA). Specifically, Section 230 of that Act, which relates to legal liability for third party providers of information. What this means is that if Person A posts defamatory materiel on Person B’s website, which concerns Person C–Person C cannot then sue Person B for publishing the material, unless Person B is actively involved in editing or publishing the material. Person B, in this case, is a “third party provider”, and is not legally liable for defamatory content that is posted on their website. In any case where the website is simply allowing “users” to make defamatory comments, rather than making them personally, they are not liable.
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