If celebrities victimized by hackers need lawyers to get their nude leaked photos removed from search engines, do you stand a chance of getting results if you're defamed online? How do you react to damaging words or photographs that can hurt you? Although it is a tricky matter to legally navigate and a very intricate process, there are things you can do. The following information will get you going in the right direction.
The Potential Consequences Of Being Defamed Online
Besides the obvious humiliation you may experience if nude photos or bad words about you are plastered all over the Internet, your entire life can literally be turned upside down. Friends may shun you and your boss may not think retaining you as an employee is in the company's best interests. Thus, reputations and careers may be irreparably damaged if you can't stop the Internet presses when defamation is involved.
Whose Side Is The Law On?
In order to have any damaging content actually removed from a site, your claim that it's harmful must have the law behind it. This essentially means you need a court order to show that it's false and defamatory, otherwise the party hosting the information is protected under First Amendment Laws. This is the law that guarantees freedom of speech for everyone, including those saying bad things about you or posting unflattering pics.
What Constitutes Legally Deletable Material?
Defamation must be false, damaging and made available to the public through some medium. When a party knows the information is false, yet makes the claim anyway, you have more power to sue them, which often leads to faster retractions of the damaging statements.
For example, if someone publishes the claim that you contracted Ebola and you suffer negative consequences because of it, a good lawyer, like one at Hilbrich Law Office, can sue to have the information removed, contradicted in a public retraction and also to seek damages on your behalf.
For the matter of nude photos being published without your consent, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act may protect and help you get them back. You might also consider suing for invasion of privacy, a tort that falls into the same legal category as defamation, for which monetary compensation may be awarded.
What If A Website Or Search Engine Says No?
A slew of famous ladies who had their personal photo collections hacked and posted online needed a high-priced lawyer calling on the CEOs of the biggest search engine to get results. For the average Jane and John Doe, it's even more difficult.
Of course, there's a huge amount of information making its way online, and it would be nearly impossible for every site to micro-manage content based on people's claims about its legality or authenticity. Defamation isn't even noted as grounds for removal on the biggest and most popular blogging sites, nor is it the policy of search engines to comb through content over allegedly damaging content.
This means your battle for justice may require the attention of an attorney who knows the intricacies regarding free speech, defamation, slander and libel and perhaps more.
Defamatory Content By Any Other Name
If you cannot afford to pay an attorney throughout the lengthy process of proving defamation or other harm, or none with whom you speak will take the case on, ask yourself if your content is illegal by some other definition of the law.
For example, if something is a copyright violation, your case may become significantly more cut and dry. If any of the defamatory information about you involves a threat, constitutes bullying online or if it involves a minor in any way, you stand a better chance of securing faster and more effective action within the courts and consequently online.
While it may be disgraceful that illegally obtained nude photos can be circulated on the Internet for indefinite periods of time, that is the nature of the beast. In the cyber world, damage to a reputation or image is swift and irreversible, save for the fact that eventually the public will forget about it. If the major search engines don't cooperate in your quest for justice online, hiring a specialty lawyer is really your only option. Even then it may take a miracle to achieve acceptable results and clear your good name.
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