A Better Approach to Internet Defamation
Editors note: This guest post is by Aaron Kelly, a Scottsdale, AZ attorney who deals extensively with internet-related legal issues.
Internet defamation can be devastating for any business. With the speed and accuracy that search engines use to index new online content, defamatory content can quickly appear on the first page of Google when a potential customer searches for your business. But before you fire off an angry letter or threaten litigation there are certain things that you must keep in mind.
First and foremost, the old adage, “if you make one client happy he’ll tell three people…if you make one client mad he’ll tell thirty people,” rings true today, and in fact is amplified by the way community review sites work. Sites like Yelp, Google Local, and even Avvo allow people to review a particular person or business. These sites do not, however, provide any of their own reviews, which is why they are not personally responsible for the content their users post. But what happens if the person who posted the comment did so with the intention of defaming you or your business?
The first, and most ideal strategy, is asking nicely. Like our mothers said, minding your manners can pay off and it is no different over the Internet. Some webmasters may, if you ask them nicely, remove defamatory content. [ed. note - Avvo won't remove a review, even if you ask nicely. But we will double-check to ensure the review meets our Community Guidelines and was not left in error for the wrong professional] One of the primary methods of persuasion used to get them to do this is that, as webmasters, they gain credibility by ensuring that only truthful content is on their website. After the content is removed, you can put the URL in Google’s cache removal form along with the term which no longer appears at the URL, and Google “should” de-index and de-cache the link relatively quickly.
The second method is through a court order to have the defamatory page de-indexed from the search engines. In essence, what happens is the affected business files a lawsuit against the person who posted the material. If the poster is unknown, then things get tricky and you will have to go through the discovery process. Once the poster’s identity is revealed, the lawsuit will be amended with their name. As a part of the lawsuit, an injunction is sought, declaring each specific URL where the material appears to be is unlawful. Google will then remove any unlawful content from its index which is listed in that order.
Sometimes, fighting defamation like this can be exhaustive to your business’ resources, and it might be best to ignore it if the negative material is getting little attention. If the defamation is getting noticed by other potential customers, but the above methods seem overwhelming to you, a positively worded rebuttal and a statement about your company’s commitment to customer service might be a good alternative.
This is just a general summary of some of the main methods used in getting rid of libelous material about your business. For more information about removing defamatory content from search engines and websites in general, you should consult an attorney who is experienced in handling these kinds of matters.
March 15th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
“The first, and most ideal strategy, is asking nicely.”
I like this advice, a lot. We’ve become an over lawyered society to the point where a lawsuit is too often the first step toward solving a problem. If an issue can get solved without the headaches associated with a formal lawsuit, then everyone benefits. That’s a lesson that applies across the board.
Thanks for the insightful blog post.
April 13th, 2011 at 3:55 am
From what I see regarding your listing/’grading’ of several of my colleagues, you will hopefully be litigated or at least flamed out of existence asap. You don’t even get basic info like office phones correct (you turn a long-time Manhattan # into a Long Island # – which belongs to some random sleep center), and all your other “insider info” directly plagiarizes the official & quite thorough NYS Physician Profile website…Thus you are at best redundant and worst, incapable of accurately copying another, more credible source who got here on task 10 years ahead of you…
You seek to have patients grade US? This proliferation of doctor-bashing websites is just ANOTHER reason for docs from my group, now in our mid-50s, to take early retirement and leave you damned self-promotors to the inexperienced, arrogant, increasingly FOREIGN-born docs, who won’t long put up with you either. WE’D like to grade YOU, the drug and disability- letter-seeking PUBLIC who come with shopping lists of meds you saw on TV& demands for ‘entitlements,’ and order us around like valets and waitresses.. Screw you along with the HMOs, pharmacos, drug-pushing reps and hospital bureaucrats, all making the big money off OUR labor while assuming NONE of the risk (or stacks of life-killing paperwork)…I hope you all die attended by the few docs and nurses left whom YOU the public BURNED OUT, assuming anyone’s left speaking English rather than Russian or Chinese. I give YOU all an F, and curse the day I got that med school acceptance letter. Plumbers and electricians make more ,than primary care docs, without the horrific debt…and they have NO insurance forms or SOAP notes to write all night. A plague on all of you!!!
August 9th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Well said Sara!