How to delete information from a forum that discredit honor, dignity or business reputation

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by hostm, Aug 28, 2014.

  1. #1
    Users of an internet forum posted information that discredit my honor, dignity and business reputation. I asked the admin of the forum to block the topic and delete the discrediting information from that. The admin blocked the topic but didn't delete the information.

    How to force him to delete the information? Go to court? Write to the hoster or domain registrar to block the forum or suspend the domain name? Hire someone else to delete the informaion? What is the best way?
     
    hostm, Aug 28, 2014 IP
  2. Helge Sverre

    Helge Sverre Prominent Member Affiliate Manager

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    #2
    I am not a laywer, but I think you can take the offender to court IF the claim they are making is false and only meant to discredit the business, but before that, I'd look into something like Negative SEO( You could check out Fiverr, SEOClerks or NegativeSEO.link) to hide the page from the search results when people search for the business.
     
    Helge Sverre, Aug 29, 2014 IP
  3. Agent000

    Agent000 Prominent Member

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    #3
    Yep. You only have three options:
    1. Go to court in the country that the forum is hosted in and prove in court that the information really is untrue and defamatory and get a court order as well as damages for the harm done to you.
    2. Continue to be really nice and polite and ask the admin of the forum to kindly remove the info
    3. Reputation management - get a whole lot of positive stuff about your business to outrank that forum thread in the search results and hope no one reads it.

    Negative SEO is not an option as what is speculated to be coming with Penguin 3.0, it is likely to be ineffective.
     
    Agent000, Aug 29, 2014 IP
  4. hostm

    hostm Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Not many options, unfortunately. Going to court costs a lot of money...
     
    hostm, Aug 31, 2014 IP
  5. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #5
    I don't know what country the forum is in but in NZ if you want to bring a defamation case you have to put the costs into a legal escrow account before the legal work commences - that's how little the legal community think of those kinds of cases.

    Consider why this person made these claims... is there anything you could have done to prevent the relationship going sour? Anything that might have been a warning before you initiated a business relationship with that person? It won't help in this instance but might serve you well when getting into new supplier or client relationships in the future.
     
    sarahk, Aug 31, 2014 IP
  6. Helge Sverre

    Helge Sverre Prominent Member Affiliate Manager

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    #6
    give me proof, not speculation, but solid hard fact from serious testing.
     
    Helge Sverre, Aug 31, 2014 IP
  7. Agent000

    Agent000 Prominent Member

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    #7
    WTF are you talking about? Penguin 3 has not been released yet, so no one can give solid facts! duh?
     
    Agent000, Aug 31, 2014 IP
  8. Helge Sverre

    Helge Sverre Prominent Member Affiliate Manager

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    #8
    Then why are you going on about negative seo not being effective or a viable solution...?
    also chill on the abbriviations and question marks, I red your reply with a blonde annoying voice.
     
    Helge Sverre, Aug 31, 2014 IP
  9. Agent000

    Agent000 Prominent Member

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    #9
    duh? Did you not see the word "speculated" in what I wrote? Have you actually read the 'informed' speculation on why its been > 10 months for the Penguin algorithm to run again?
     
    Agent000, Aug 31, 2014 IP