Hi All i run a forum and there has been some chat about a business its a fair number of posts and some are favorable for the business and some are negative, its quite balanced. the post has started ranking for the companies name and i just received an email asking me to remove the post 'before they take further steps' firstly i dont like people telling me what i can or cannot have on my forum but what is the actual legal stance? if someone writes a negative review then surely thats there entitlement e.g. a negative google review on a hotel stands! look forward to your replies thanks
Your forum is likely protected (depends on location, and actual circumstances), but there is nothing that would prevent a company from suing you to force you to spend legal fees. Only a court order can force you to remove it. If the company wants to pursue it, they could also get a court order to have you reveal the identity of the posters (IP address, email address, name, etc). A lot of these types of letters are bluffs, but some will certainly follow through.
Do not choke on your pride. Just remove the post in question, and move on. It does not matter if it is a bluff or not. How good are you going to sleep at night "am I going to be taken to court" or "Is this a bluff, and I will take my chances" forums maybe protected by certain laws, but still can run up legal fees if you have to get an atty to defend your site because you would not remove a simple post.
I vote for removing the post too. I agree, sleeping is more important, at least to me. And the possible legal fees and time to deal with it. Not worth the trouble or cost.
I titled this post "beware unintended consequences". Under U.S. law, and assuming your TOS is properly written, you have no liability for what others post on your site, and you have no obligation to review posts. However, if you start to edit and/or review the posts on your forum, you could be creating liability if you do not edit and/or review every post. This is a far trickier situation than the posts above would suggest. You may wish to get further legal advice rather than just taking the post down.