Internet Defamation Law | The Growing Problem of Online Defamation

Today’s program is brought to you by Traverse Legal, a law firm specializing in Internet law, domain disputes, and technology company representation.   Welcome to Intenet Defamation Law Radio.  Now here’s your host, Attorney Enrico Schaefer. 

Today we’re talking about online defamation, slander, and libel on the Internet.  It’s a big problem.  There are a lot of web sites and a lot of blogging tools and a lot of forums and a lot of comment sections and any number of different ways to host a web site or use someone else’s platform to host your particular content. 

With this explosion of content on the Internet, the simple reality is that anyone who has something to say about anything can jump online and broadcast it to the world.  Given the reality that people who are angry or pissed off, people who have grudges, people who are seeking payback, people who want retribution, people who are potentially mentally ill, all of these things play themselves out on the Internet because everyone’s got a voice.  While the Internet gives a voice to the masses, there are sometimes people who pay the price of that ease of content, of that ability to say what you want, when you want, where you want, to make it permanent.  That is online character defamation, when the author of a particular piece of content expresses dissatisfaction or provides false statements of fact about a third person, a person who has now been defamed on the Internet, who has had their character attacked online.  When people go to Google, oftentimes the very first web site to come up for that person’s name is third party defamatory content.  Your reputation online can go from ambiguous and anonymous, all the way to completely defamed in a matter of minutes, hours or days.  When someone puts up that third party content saying what a jerk you are, how you did something that was unlawful, how you cheated on your spouse, how you cheated your neighbor, how you failed to pay your bills, nude photos of you taken long ago with or without your knowledge, think about it.  Someone who you’ve just interviewed with Googles your name, and the first search result is a blog devoted to the fact that you are the scum of the earth, that you can’t be trusted, that you are a bad person.  The very first search result on Google is a blog which, in venomous detail, defames your character would make anyone question whether or not they wanted anything to do with you, let alone give you a job.  The stone cold hard truth of the Internet is that, for all of its beauty, there is a sacrifice.  We sacrifice our ability to be anonymous.  This is true even though we may not go online, we may not put information into the text boxes, our credit card numbers or the like.  We may avoid being found online, but someone else can take our name and do a little search engine optimization so that anyone who plugs your name into the Internet is going to come to defamatory or libelous content, content that ruins your reputation, that defames your character. 

Internet lawyers see it all the time, and sometimes there’s a possible resolution to the problem and sometimes there’s not a good practical solution to the problem.  Sometimes you can identify the person who’s defamed you, the person who runs the blog, the person who posted the comment online.  Sometimes you can’t.  It’s a big problem, and it probably is not going away anytime soon.  It probably will be around for the duration.  We will have to learn to deal with it.  We will have to learn to live with it.  There are states that are passing internet defamation laws to help curb some, what many would say, inappropriate content.  In the meantime, you need to make sure your online reputation is protected, to have that domain name transferred to your control.  You’re going to have to make sure that any untruthful, false, and malicious content that’s posted about you can be dealt with because your next job, your future in-laws, your neighbors, your friends, people who think they might want to be your friend, people who are most definitely not your friend, guess what, all these people go to Google and punch your name in to see what comes back. 

Tomorrow we’ll be exploring what to do about online defamation, how to take third party content down, how to have the host assist you in removing content, how to use threat letters against the people who have defamed you online to get them to remove the content and cease and desist any further defamatory activity.  We’ll get into the solution part of this conversation tomorrow. 

For today, that’s all.  This has been Traverse Legal Radio and your host, Internet Attorney Enrico Schaefer.  We’ll see you next time.

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