Defamation on a complaints website - defamation lawyer

Very often, when you respond to a complaint on a Complaints Site, you end up with a bigger defamation problem than you ever imagined. You get a reply to your reply and other people that you never heard of before are now making further accusations against you and generally speaking inviting themselves to a conversation that they know nothing about.

If your business is facing online defamation on a Complaints Site, consider whether you wish to respond to the allegations and if whether the Complaints Site is the most appropriate forum for a response.

Often, when faced with defamatory reviews and unfounded complaints, the real issue for the business is not the defamation but rather the loss of customers' trust that follows.

When it comes to your relationship with new customers, the usual course of events is that a customer shows an interest in your service so he or she carries out a simple Google search to find your website. When they read the defamatory posts about your company they develop a natural 'buying objection', which you now have to overcome.

This is your dilemma: if you address an issue on the Complains Site, you must be prepared to take the risk that the conversation will escalate with you having little or no control over it. If you do not respond at all - you will be most likely to lose many customers.

Many organisations now prefer to take a different approach altogether. They respond to allegations that appear on Complaints Sites on their own social media forums, or even on their websites. They present their side of the story, on their own territory and in a manner which is aimed to pre-empt sales objections.

The decision whether to respond to a complaint on a Complains Site is always a tricky one and you should always consider obtaining professional advice before taking any irreversible action.


Learn more about defamation of business and the internet at the Internet Law Centre
By: Yair Cohen

9 Steps To Avoid Internet Defamation By Employees And Former Business Partners

9 Steps To Avoid Defamation By Employees And Former Business Partners




Internet Defamation By Employees

How to describe that first shocking moment when you discover that the reputation of your business is being tarnished all over the internet? There’s really nothing else like it, and it is followed by sleepless nights and constant worry. For some business people whose reputation is attacked online, things will never be the same again.

Just imagine: As you lie awake wishing the problem would go away, instead, it is spreading throughout the internet. Within weeks, sometimes even days, there is more defamatory material every time you look. The complaints are anonymous, and they are in too many places for you to respond to, if the sites even allow for a response at all.

Learn more about defamation of business and the internet at the Internet Law Centre

The lightning speed of information flowing through the internet, the speed that seems so miraculous when you are seeking information, is now working against you. Soon, matters are completely out of your control.

Who creates these treacherous, career-wrecking posts? It turns out that former employees and former business partners are responsible for many of them. Experience tells us that this group of people is often motivated by a strong sense of injustice and powerful emotions of anger, pain, and fear. They are hurt emotionally and financially when they lose their position, without good cause, as they see it. In their view, their treatment by their former employer or business partner constitutes a breach of trust. Now that you’ve breached it, so will they. With a vengeance - literally. And they can do it in a way few others can.

During their employment, former employees and business partners are likely to have access to sensitive information about the company, and in some cases, evidence of minor wrongdoings by their employer or business partner. They might be in possession of vast amounts of information about you, your family, your personal life, your business practices and some of your past mistakes and errors. They may now use this information against you.

Learn more about business defamation and the internet at the Internet Law Centre

9 Steps To Avoid Defamation By Employees And Former Business Partners

While you can’t entirely eliminate the possibility of breach of trust by former employees or business partners, you can reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim to online defamation. Here are some important steps you should take as a precaution:

Step 1:
Always remember that employees and business partners come and go. Someday they will no longer be with your company, but their memories of you will not end with their employment.

Step 2:
Place a high value on personal integrity and trustworthiness when assessing a new business partner or employee. Skills may be acquired, but integrity cannot. It is gold, and value it as such.

Step 3:
Always look for signals of disgruntlement among your employees, listen to their concerns and act to fix matters quickly.

Step 4:
Restrict access to sensitive personal data and private information. Keep your customers’ mailing lists private as well. Maintain them in safe, preferably password-protected databases, and never make these databases freely available to your employees, especially in a downloadable format.

Step 5:
Make sure that your organisation complies with all the requirements of the Data Protection Act of 1998. If you neglect your legal obligations to protect your mailing lists from being stolen, you could find yourself liable for prosecution.

Step 6:
Ensure that your employees are constantly aware of your uncompromising approach towards breach of data protection laws.

Step 7:
Make data protection compliance part of all your employees' employment contracts.

Step 8:
In the event that you discover evidence of an employee misusing or unlawfully downloading your company’s customer database, deal with the issue immediately and without compromise. It is important that a stern approach towards any form of breach of trust is appropriately communicated to your entire workforce.

Step 9:
Always play it straight. Be fair in your dealings with employees and partners and listen to their concerns. It is the right thing to do. And it can also prevent internet-reputation nightmares down the road.
Learn more about business defamation and the internet at the Internet Law Centre

Author: Yair Cohen

Google told to disclose personal information of an anonymous blogger ina UK defamation case

Google Inc. is ordered by a UK Judge to disclose personal information of an anonymous blogger.

On Monday 23 January 2012, a High Court Judge in London ordered internet giant Google Inc. to disclose to a UK claimant, data and personal details which it holds in relation to a user who utilised Google’s Blogger to spread defamation against a UK based businessman.

Google was told to have information, which includes the blog owner’s user name, email address and IP address disclosed to Yair Cohen, lawyer acting for the claimant, who is fighting for defamatory content about him to be removed from the American based Blog. Read full article on Internet Law Expert blog.

Can Victims Of Online Defamation And Internet Trolling Rebuild Their Lives?

Yair Cohen The fact that almost everything on the internet is changeable and movable should be somewhat comforting to victims of online defamation, online reputation attacks and online harassment. Having the knowledge that nothing on the internet is set in stone gives people a real hope that their reputational issues could one day be resolved.

And if you are a victim of online defamation, I have some more good news for you.  Imagine you...Read more on Internet Trolling blog.

Internet Reputation Tip Of The Day

The internet works in a strange way. Each time you reply to an online comment, you are fuelling its popularity. This is because you are introducing new material on the same topic.
The search engines, and in particular Google give priority to ‘live’ issues which means that each time a comment is being added to a thread, it helps the thread to climb up the search engines’ ladder, which ironically is exactly the opposite of the result that you would want to achieve. Read More On Internet Defamation Lawyer's blog

Online Defamation And Your Stolen Lists

It is very difficult to describe the moment where you first realise that your business reputation is being tarnished all over the internet. This unforgettable moment normally follows by many sleepless nights, tiredness, frustration and of course money problems.

You see, some of your employees are likely to possess impressive amounts of knowledge about you, your business, your practices, your procedures, your errors, mistakes and regrets, as well as about your true feelings about things that matter to your customers.

You get hit left, right and centre and with very little opportunity to defend yourself.

In the meantime, the online defamation attacks are starting to increase. Links are being shared between people and more defamatory material is now being.... Read more on Online Defamation

Remove Defamatory Websites - Internet Law Expert

Online Reputation – Injunction Against Google « Internet Law Experts

How Can I Remove Defamatory Websites

In the past few weeks we removed over 40 defamatory websites, which up until then, devastated our clients’ reputation.

We removed a vast number of defamatory videos from You Tube and we managed to remove a popular, yet defamatory article against a successful businessman from a national news website.

We sought and won injunctions against YouTube, Google Inc, Firefox and other internet giants around the world and successfully enforced them all in the UK, the USA, Canada and other countries.

We gave one decent, hard-working online retailer his business back following savage online reputation attacks against him and his company by competitors.

We advised a client who owns an international franchise company on how to deal with online attacks by a former employee. These constant attacks were estimated to have cost the company in excess of £300,000!


We have also helped the owners of a national services company to form their first ever online reputation strategy following a devastating online reputation attack against them by both a competitor and a former employee, which cost them their biggest contact.

So this is how it is done... Read Full Blog on Internet Law Expert

via Online Reputation – Injunction Against Google « Internet Law Expert.