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.