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.
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