By law

Defamation is a negative and false claim of fact made by an individual against someone else. Slander and Libel, terms you might also hear, are forms of defamation. (Slander is defamatory content that’s spoken, and libel being defamatory content published in writing.) For all intents and purposes, defamatory content is the preferred blanket term people use.

What Happens When Someone Makes A Defamatory Claim Against You?

You and your business are subject to harassment, ridicule, and/or loss of sales. Because the claim is made, as a matter of fact, many people will believe it. As a result, other companies may conclude their business with you in fear of potential backlash, and individuals may boycott your product/services.

What Are My Options To Defend Against Defamation?

Just Ask

With the age of social media and an ever-increasing need for up-to-date, quickly churned out content, mistakes are made. Oftentimes, bloggers and reporters simply make silly errors and would be happy to retract, redact, or remove the defamatory content. If you’re a person with a relative amount of fame, consequently you’re subject to news articles. Contact the writer or the managing editor to have the content removed. Complete removal is the only way to ensure that it’s gone entirely from Google. If they refuse, you can escalate your tactics.

Consult With A Lawyer

A capable lawyer should be able to lay out your options, but remember, you need to prove a lot in order to win your case. Depending on the lawyer, it will take an extraordinary amount of time to win your case. However, sometimes hiring a lawyer to send a warning letter can provide enough fear for the author to remove the defamatory content. If you have some time to kill and the financial means necessary, then hiring a lawyer is probably a good option for you.

Consult With Guaranteed Removal

Most noteworthy, we don’t charge consultation fees, and even offer a free reputation analysis. With over 10 years of specialized experience in content removal and suppression, we know the ins and outs of defamation. When you contact us, we go to work immediately by contacting the author, the site’s registrar, (or the social media company,) and Google or Bing. We have the financial and technological means to remove the content quickly and permanently from the internet.  This ensures the defamatory content never, ever resurfaces.

In conclusion, If you’re in need of defamatory content removal services give us a call at 833-469-9527 and we’ll go to bat for you.

What Is An Online Reputation?

Your online reputation is a direct reflection of you (or your business) to the online world. Social media profiles, business reviews, blog posts, address listings, forums, Google searches, and more, all play a part in your online reputation. As a result, it’s of utmost importance to control your online reputation, as it can have drastic results on many things: what school you get in to, who will hire you, who will rent to you, how much money your business makes, and even who will date you. In today’s day and age of technological innovation—everything is readily searchable on the internet—and anything is searchable. If the thought of that is scary, you should diagnose your own personal online reputation. You can also get a free background analysis on your online reputation, too. Who knows, you may have nothing to worry about

Neutral 

If you have a neutral reputation,  consequently you probably aren’t very active online. People who don’t own businesses, have social media profiles, or create an online presence for themselves often have a neutral online reputation. On the other hand, if you do own a company or are self-employed, search your own name or businesses’ name; if the search engine doesn’t return anything, you have a neutral online reputation.

Positive 

Let’s say, however, that you search for your business and do find it listed on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, etc. What are people saying about your business? If your company has been rated, by how many people, and how many stars do you average?

Negative 

If people are complaining about your website, services, products, or are just griping in general—you have a negative image. Not only does this affect your business, but it can affect your personal life, too. It could be affecting you from getting your dream job. Up to 70% of employers scan your online reputation when making a hiring decision.

One Bad Review Can Spoil The Truth

If you’re satisfied with the ratings, what people are saying about you, and the success of your business, great! You definitely have a positive online influence. But let’s say you have a 4.4/5.0 star ranking because one jaded customer left you a 1-star review. You should take it seriously; a single negative review or rating can have a devastating impact on your business or personal life, and it should be addressed.

Manage Your Online Reputation

Think of your online reputation as how searchable you are, and what comes up on those searches. If your arrest record or mugshot is posted on multiple sites, obviously that’s not going to help you land that new job or find a romantic partner. If your business has hundreds of 5-star reviews, that’s probably attributing to the success of your industry. Just like in real life, you need to manage what people know, think, and see about you. Controlling your online reputation is necessary for everyone in the 21st century. The good news is, there are great tools at your disposal for making managing yours easy. Want to learn more? Get a free online reputation assessment today!

5 Secrets to Maintaining a Good Online Reputation

A good online reputation is critical for both individuals and businesses. It’s estimated that a single negative online review for a business on the first page of their search results can reduce their likelihood of new business by 22%.

So what do you do to maintain a good online reputation when it’s clearly so important?

Clean Up Your Social Media

Your social media channels are the single biggest obstacle to you getting that dream job. It’s estimated that 70% of employers now conduct social media background checks on potential new hires.

Clean up your social media pages now. Do you have a picture of you smoking a blunt from six years ago? Get rid of it. It doesn’t matter how long ago it happened.

The general rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t want your grandmother or Sunday school teacher to see it, remove it.

Don’t Comment on Controversial Topics

Guilt by association is very real when it comes to maintaining your online reputation. Commenting on a controversial topic, or even reposting it without comment, is just the same as posting the original content.

Stay far away from controversial topics, including when it comes to politics and religion. Yes, you have a right to free speech, but people also have a right to not do business with you.

Which is more important to you?

Go on the Attack and Create a Buzz

Sometimes you may be starting from a poor position because of something you said or did in the past. This is where you have to go on the attack by creating a buzz.

Establish a presence on your social media channels. Promote yourself and engage in conversations on the topics you care about. Fill up your social media channels with PG conversations and nothing controversial.

Over time, the new content drives down the toxic old content until it can’t be found any longer.

Don’t be the Jerk Online

The online world can bring out the worst in us. Unfortunately, online arguments tend to make it harder for anyone to maintain a positive reputation.

To put it simply, don’t be a jerk.

When you mention others, make it in a positive light. Give people their props and make it about them. Be the guy who lifts people up not tears them down.

Invest in Online Reputation Management

Make online reputation management an investment in yourself. For the things you can’t do yourself, call in the professionals to help you.

For more serious problems, such as public arrest records, get the experts to have them taken down. They will be able to transform your online reputation.

Last Word – Be Consistent

The most important tip of all is to be consistent in your efforts. Your online reputation never becomes less important over time. It should be a priority for you to make sure that you are constantly getting good press and gradually pushing down the bad.

Is Defaming Someone a Crime?

Defamation/defaming is a difficult concept to understand for many individuals and businesses. There are multiple types of defamation and just because you can be prosecuted for some types of defamation doesn’t necessarily make it a crime.

Sound confusing? We’re going to go into this issue to help you understand when defaming isn’t a crime and what you need to be aware of.

When is it a Crime

Defamation is rarely a crime that can lead to jail. The only time defamation is a crime is when it’s known as criminal defamation, which means you need to commit a crime in order to defame someone. These cases are extremely rare in the US and only 24 states have this law on the books anyway.

You’ll almost never find a criminal defamation case because many argue that the law infringes on the First Amendment rights of its citizens.

The Most Common Type 

The most common type of defamation in the US today is known as civil libel. So even if you lose a case in court you’re not going to go to jail. You’ll be asked to pay compensation.

That doesn’t make it a crime, though.

Civil libel cases can happen entirely by accident. Saying the wrong thing online could lead to you being prosecuted, but because there was no malice behind it the defamation case isn’t tried in front of a criminal judge.

How Can You Avoid Accidents

Think before you act. Always make sure you consider whether you’re defaming something before you begin writing. Go out of your way to ensure that you aren’t accidentally accusing someone of wrongdoing when you have no evidence to back it up.

This is why big corporations hire large legal teams to manage this. They have a team of lawyers who can manage their publications so they don’t inadvertently find themselves in this situation.

Are there Any Defenses

You should always speak to an experienced attorney if you find yourself in this situation. However, there are libel defenses you can use.

The most obvious one is to use a provable truth or a fact. For example, saying that a CEO is a criminal after they have been convicted of financial fraud isn’t defamation because they have been convicted and you’re simply repeating what the public records already state.

However, doing the same when they haven’t been convicted is.

Last Word – Watch What You Say

Defamation isn’t something you have to worry about from a criminal standpoint. You just need to tread carefully if you decide to call out a third-party in a public arena.

Make sure that you’re not doing something accidentally. This is why it’s always good to familiarize yourself with the law and to ensure that you’re not making any catastrophic mistakes.

Have you ever being prosecuted for libel?

Libel laws in the US can get extremely complicated: Criminal Libel vs. Civil Libel.

There’s a difference between Criminal Libel vs. Civil Libel that you need to be aware of when publishing content and when deciding whether to take legal action against a third-party.

First of all, it’s important to mention that in 24 states there are no provisions for criminal libel, so for further information, you should speak to a lawyer in your state.

But let’s take a look at the differences between Criminal Libel vs. Civil Libel.

What are the Definitions?

Criminal defamation is a much more serious charge than civil libel and it can always lead to a prosecution.

An act of criminal defamation involves committing a crime in order to defame another party. For example, someone could write a slanderous blog about a candidate running for political office. They could accuse the candidate of corruption without any evidence to support their claims. This would be criminal defamation.

It should be noted that criminal defamation cases are extremely rare in the US due to concerns about enforcing this law and the effect on First Amendment rights.

Civil libel, on the other hand, involves no criminal offense and it’s not always possible to sue someone over this. It’s possible to get legal compensation, however. Nobody can go to jail as a direct result of civil libel.

Why are Criminal Defamations so Rare?

Criminal defamation is very much a relic of the past and is most commonly associated with dictatorships. The state can use it as a means to control the press. Countries that actively enforce criminal defamation typically don’t have a free press, which is why you rarely find these cases in the US.

On average, a successful criminal defamation case will lead to a conviction once every thirty or so years. Journalists are particularly hostile to these laws and half of US states have removed this law from their books entirely.

How Civil Defamation is Dangerous

The main difference between the two is that criminal defamation has to be malicious. An act of civil libel can happen completely by accident.

You may decide to write a blog about a company that you claim is cutting its quality products with cheaper alternatives in a bid to save money.

That company might decide to sue you for civil libel. You can’t be prosecuted criminally, but if found guilty you would have to pay compensation to the company.

This is why companies have to be extremely careful about what they say. Even saying something slanderous by accident could lead to a lawsuit.

Is there a Defense for Civil Libel?

There’s little point in discussing defenses for criminal defamation cases because they’re practically a non-issue in the 21st century.

However, for civil libel, the most common defense is that you’re telling the truth. This is why companies that do make controversial statements only do so when they have facts to back up their claims. It’s why you’ll never see Apple or Samsung directly attacking each other.

Last Word – Tread Carefully

The main takeaway is that you should always be aware of what you say. Anything that could be construed as an attack should be carefully considered before putting it into the public domain.

Have you ever experienced a libel case?