Increase of extortion-fueled reputation attacks points to a need for legal change

Columnist Chris Silver Smith believes that as more people suffer online reputation attacks, lawmakers must modify legislation to help innocent victims fight back.


Read: https://marketingland.com/extortion-frequency-reputation-attacks-argues-legal-change-228898

I totally agree with the article. Over three years ago I wrote about the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to allow Yelp to continue their wicked ways. Allowing websites to wash their hands of this and then wondering why they did what the courts have allowed them to do isn't their fault.

We shouldn't force Google, Yelp, ROR, PC, TheDirty or anyone else to staff a full legal team, in many cases this is a criminal offense and should be pursued by the police. If you post nude photos of someone without their written consent, you have violated their privacy and committed a criminal act. At this point, the police should get a subpoena for the records of the poster and prosecute the poster.

For all user generated content (UGC), the burden and blame should be on the person, not the company that allowed for UGC to be published. I agree that sites like ROR thrive on negativity, but so does mainstream news. While immoral to many people, it's not criminal to give unhappy people an outlet to vent.