How to Deal With Online Defamation
It usually is very difficult to deal with justified reproaches here and there against you as a person. On the other hand, having to deal with an online attack with a vendetta against your reputation is just unwarranted and unfair. Online defamation is one way cyber bullies use to tarnish people’s names on the online community and dealing with is usually quite a tough task.
To deal with an online attack, there are two ways one can apply, the legal approach and the non-legal one. The truth is, once you have taken the legal approach, it shows you are fully on the offensive and are ready to fight back whilst the non-legal approach is laid back and may just as well have the same impact. The legal approach is guaranteed to work and shall definitely cost you in legal fees. To some extent, it will seem like heavy handed and get the online community to sympathize with your attacker.
The legal approach shall require you to get into contact with your attacker and have you communicate that the false information must be pulled down. The attacker may pull down the content and thus restore your reputation. It isn’t always that easy and quick to deal with especially if the attacker is hiding behind an anonymous identity.
If the false statements and stories are posted by anonymous bodies, there is need to bring in an online defamation attorney who shall then be able to investigate, find the identities and take them to court if necessary. Most of the time, there will be no need to go to court because the lawyer can just send them a warning and they will stop the cyber attacking you. To determine if there is a just case against an attacker, the best way is to gauge based on the motive, if it has affected you financially or there is plain malice so as to get an upper hand at something, then there definitely is a case. In this instance, you can let your attorney find the proof and let him do his job.
The other way as the lawyers are working towards finding a ground to pull the plug on the false information, is to report them. Kick the attacker where it hurts and report them to their domain registrar, their hosting companies, the social media platform and even to Google. There is a big chance one or all of them may shut the attacker down. You can use this as a last hand if all else seems not to be working lest it be received as a similar retaliatory attack on your attacker which then affects their livelihood. Ensure you have sought legal advice before doing this and involve all stakeholders in case there is a backlash on you. This is because the repercussions of doing this may be dire.
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