Web Extras

The Legal Low-Down

Defamation is the communication of false statements about a person, group or business that cause harm to the reputation with intent to do so. Libel is a subcategory of defamation, the most common type of defamation we see online. Websites that publish defamatory content and revenge porn are given broad immunity under the Communications Decency Act. But there are steps one can take to remove the content.

Websites are not immune from liability in the following situations:

  • The website itself actively creates and edits its content.
  • There are copyright or trademark infringements. (Revenge porn victims can, in theory, copyright images that they took.)
  • The website is encouraging people to post illegal content.
  • The website is violating criminal laws and posting illegal content by its users.

What the victim of online defamation and revenge porn should do:

  • Take screen shots of everything, including anything that reveals when it was posted, who posted it, the numbers of views, comments from viewers.
  • Try to convince the online service provider to voluntarily remove the material.
    • Contact the website by email. Reference the ways in which the material violates its “terms of service” policies. Many have language forbidding the posting of material that is false, lewd, harassing, bigoted, etc. If the material breaches the provider’s own policies, they are more likely to remove it.
    • Demand that they provide you with (and not delete from their records) the following information: 1) Identity of the person who posted image(s), 2) IP address of the person who posted image(s), 3) Date when image(s) were submitted, 4) Date when it was posted, if not obvious, 5) Number of unique views the image(s) has received.

  • Search elsewhere online to see if there is other material about you.
  • Ask the author to request that the website voluntarily remove the content. Or take legal action against the author and seek a court order for an injunction demanding they retract the material. This can be enforced against websites.
  • Deindex from search engines.  If the site uses malware or violates any search engine Webmaster guidelines, report it.  In worst case scenarios, obtain a court order to have the URL removed from search engine results. The item will still exist if the exact URL is typed in, but will stop being searchable.

--Carrie Goldberg ’99