The greatest surprises will always come from humans, not from technology.
Fighting Online Defamation is not a black/white process. Each case is unique as there could be dozens of factors taken into consideration by a Reputation Firm before they quote the cost for success.
15 Major Factors while planning to fight online defamation
- Profile of the client. How much is the client set to lose because of this attack.
- Is the attacker anonymous? Is it someone known?
- Server location of the website with the negative content. Is it in a privacy haven ?
- Does it seem like a deliberate and planned defamation attack, or something spontaneous?
- Accessibility of the negative content. Is it limited to single platform, or has spread to social network platforms among other.
- Legal history related to the particular case.
- Nature of content. Can it be classified as an opinion, or be construed as Libel or Deliberate Defamation.
- Is any part of the negative content infringing on any intellectual property rights anywhere?
- Your current infrastructure of web properties, including social media profiles, websites, directory listings etc.
- Association of keywords. The more generic the keywords, the more the effort required to fix.
- Website authority of the website hosting the negative content.
- Has the content violated any TOS of the website it is published on?
- Is the webmaster cooperative?
- Is there a timeframe to achieve results
- Is suppression an option when removal isn’t possible ?
At Defamed, we focus on results, and get paid for results. We do not get paid for the process, and work on contingency basis, ALWAYS.
Which means that we analyze each case and decide the course of action which will result in the best possible solution for our client. It can range from using our legal contacts based in over a dozen nations, or our strategic partnerships, or liaise with anyone to get what we want. We do not generally involve the client in these process, as confidentiality is key to success.
The attacker does not follow any set pattern. They do whatever they can to hurt you. To deal with this situation, you must do whatever is necessary to mitigate the attack.
Means to an end, really !