Hello everyone, I own a quite popular product review blog and there is a part of the site that contains pages dedicated to different retailers that sell this product. On these pages, visitors can leave positive or negative feedback. These pages tend to rank well in search engines, right under the shop name. One of these shops has a lot of negative comments and contacted me asking to remove the page which I refused. The guy is insisting though so I would like to know whether he has a way to legally force me to remove the content or not. What is the best way to deal with this situation ? Thanks a lot for your advice.
The owner of the store would need a court order to force you to remove it. I actually did this many years ago - but the person who was posting reviews had completely fabricated these stories and was mentally ill (claimed they were an undercover CIA agent, etc.). Although unlikely, the store owner could name you in a lawsuit and while you would almost certainly be protected, it could cost you some money in legal fees. You might want to consult with an attorney if this party becomes serious as you can lose some protection if you start selectively removing reviews that do not violate your TOS (if you edit some, does that mean you are endorsing the others as true...)
Well the Internet is a place of free speaking. Its your right, My Right or Anyone Elses right to post anything you want in a review. As long as it doesnt falsely accuse the recipient of the review of anything