How do you suppress or REMOVE negative reviews on online forums?

[dwestep762]

I have a friend who once did a lot of work for people on an online forum and at one time had a decent business going, but fell on hard times and ended up getting negative reviews from customers (for long turnaround times, etc..), then eventually shut the business down.. Thing is, my friend's phone number and full contact information is still on the site and he wants it as well as the negative reviews taken down.. He has contacted the moderators AND the webhosting provider of the forum and nobody will answer his complaints or remove any content that even amounts to harassment and slander..

As of right now, if you search my friend's name on any major search engine, the first thing that comes up is a negative review AND his full contact information (address, cell phone number, etc..) on the first page, within the first three to five search results..

What can be done to have this taken down from the forum or at least de-indexed from yahoo, google, etc..?

 

[Des_cartes]

If the webmaster doesn't want to remove it I think the only solution will be to hire a lawyer or a specialised company, there are a lot of differents laws regarding online data privacy depending on where you live or where the forum is hosted so it's impossible to give you an exact answer without more information. Best solution is to contact a professional.

 

[93chandu]

Pay the the forum moderators or make a substantial donation to the forum and ask them to take down the content

 

[dwestep762]

If the webmaster doesn't want to remove it I think the only solution will be to hire a lawyer or a specialised company, there are a lot of differents laws regarding online data privacy depending on where you live or where the forum is hosted so it's impossible to give you an exact answer without more information. Best solution is to contact a professional.

Okay.. Both my friend and the forum in question are located in the United states if that helps anything..

 

[NGALO1983]

Maybe its not your friend but really you? What type of scam were you involved with in the past?

 

[dwestep762]

Maybe its not your friend but really you? What type of scam were you involved with in the past?

No, it was my friend, not myself, and there was no scam. What happened is that my friend was doing good with his business, then got into a car accident that left him mostly unable to do the jobs he was hired to do by people on the forum. Despite his best efforts, people started making false accusations and were a lot less than understanding of his situation.

 

[Faith]

ORM is what he should probably do.
Create sites or web 2.0 with the same concept, but turn it around.
Make it rank and push the bad results to 2nd page. Thats what I can think of.
Also, change phone number?

 

[Sherb]

No, it was my friend, not myself, and there was no scam. What happened is that my friend was doing good with his business, then got into a car accident that left him mostly unable to do the jobs he was hired to do by people on the forum. Despite his best efforts, people started making false accusations and were a lot less than understanding of his situation.

That sounds like a load of crap, sorry.

There is always something like this that happens. A person either gets overwhelmed and can't handle their orders, or their product/service falls well below expectations/hype, so the person disappears and/or makes some ridiculous excuse as to why the job can't get done.

 

[BHopkins]

Depending on what exactly is posted, Google will often deindex the page. From what you've said, it won't qualify, but at least worth a look.

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2744324?hl=en

Your other option is suppression if you can't convince the website to take it down.

 

[jweb]

Or you can try other techniques to get rid of the forum posting itself. Really depends on the forum itself and the nature of the post. Happy to help. PM me if you want.

 

[bobjohnson]

Check to see if the forum has a posted their Terms of Service. If you can prove that the posting has violated any of the terms then they should take it down.

 

[Zwielicht]

If it was indeed "slander" then you can try to hire a lawyer who specialises in libel, slander, and defamation on the Internet. They can start off with a simple e-mail to both the web host and the forum owner asking to remove the infringing page.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/social-media-online-defamation.html
http://thompsonhall.com/cease-desist-defamation-of-character-template-example-sample-form/
http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/personal-injury/lawyer-defamation-lawsuit.html
http://kellywarnerlaw.com/internet-defamation-lawyer/
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/libel-and-slander.html

 

[bobjohnson]

Zwielicht have you worked with any of these firms beofre?

 

[Zwielicht]

Zwielicht have you worked with any of these firms beofre?

Have I worked with them as clients or as a client?

The answer to both is 'no'. I work with a divorce lawyer, but I've never had to hire a lawyer myself (and if the others charge anything like my client, I hope I never have to ).

 

[gcgipson]

Seems to me that the best solution would be to do a major 180 with the service and support? I don't think you can "get rid" of such information....