Internet Defamation Help For Business
Businesses, whether a former employee, disgruntled customer, angry vendor, or the competition, should respond strongly and quickly to false allegations plastered on the internet. RMN’s primary objective is getting the negative content and material removed from websites as well as purged from search engine caches. If necessary, we take civil action against the offenders and we will litigate to forcibly get it removed and also recover your damages.
Contacting an attorney as soon as possible is the best way to improve your chances of a successful outcome. Talk to a internet defamation attorney today.
Where Are Defamatory Statements Most Commonly Found?
The quickness of internet publishing makes it easy for defamation to occur in a viral way. Negative statements about a brand or business can haunt the back hallways of the internet as well as grab center stage. While some may subscribe to the idea that good and bad media coverage is still good publicity, other businesses know that negative publicity can ruin or bankrupt their business entirely.
Possible Defamation Areas
- local newspapers’ letters to the editor
- public comments on media websites
- internet chatrooms
- social media posts
- blog posts
- comments on blog posts
4 Legal Criteria of Internet Defamation
An online defamation lawsuit only gains success if these four legal criteria are present in the claim. The defamation must be false, witnessed, caused harm, and not protected by the first amendment. A situation where all four criteria are present may be a valid lawsuit. If you think you might have such a case, reach out to an attorney today to explore your legal solutions under the law.
False information
Defamation is when something written or said is false with the intention of damaging the character of the business or person. A reviewer of a mom and pop restaurant might write a review, saying “the french fries were gross.” That’s a subjective opinion of one person and wouldn’t be enough for a lawsuit. However, an ex-employee who writes a tell-all blog about a former employer, making up false stories to hurt the employer’s business, may end up facing a lawsuit for creating false stories to harm the company.
Heard by a third party
Damage is often caused when other people hear the false statement and are influenced by it. This can change their buying habits and they may also tell their communities about this information. While written statements often last longer with more injury, a television broadcast can cause just as much damage to a company or person’s character.
Definitely harmful
A false statement that hasn’t caused any quantifiable harm is not worth suing over. However, when a company or person can trace a dip in profit in conjunction with that untrue remark, that financial loss is proof of the harm caused. Perhaps a company with 10,000 returning clients suffers the effects of viral video that falsely accuses them of a number of issues. That same week, half their clients leave, and every week after, they lose more clients. Their business has been severely harmed by the false video.
Not protected by the First Amendment.
The U.S Constitution protects freedom of speech, which allows Americans to voice their opinions about everything from government to lawn length. Defamation laws protect Americans from statements that can be injurious to business or character. However, freedom of speech is protected from defamation laws during witness testimony or lawmaker statements in legislative chambers. Outside of these protections, a false remark can be targeted for a lawsuit.
Protect Your Company’s Reputation
Studies indicate that most people conduct at minimum a quick internet search of your company prior to conducting any business. This can be a customer coming for lunch or for commercial clients a prospective major business deal. Even a single negative review can be devastating if it resonates with your customers. It is extremely simple to make a website or web page that targets your business. With the advanced algorithms of modern search engines and easy SEO plugins, these can easily get picked up and ranked among search results for your company.
Consider that there are likely dozens of keywords that you can use to search a business, each with it’s own unique set of results–on multiple search engines. Even if you don’t see it, others may. Chat with a defamation attorney: (412) 626-5626 or lawyer@RMN-Law.com.