Many people are concerned with the volume of slanderous content about people on the internet…including websites that publish such material and then extort victims to pay to have it removed.
In 2021, Google announced plans to change its search algorithm to prevent predatory websites, which operated under domains like BadGirlReport.date and PredatorsAlert.us, from appearing in the list of results when someone searches for a person’s name.
Google also recently created a new concept it calls “known victims.” When people report to the company that they have been attacked on sites that charge to remove posts, Google will automatically suppress similar content when their names are searched for. “Known victims” also includes people whose nude photos have been published online without their consent, allowing them to request suppression of explicit results for their names.
These are examples of personal information that Google will remove if you are unable to have a website remove it on request:
Non-consensual explicit or intimate personal images from Google
Involuntary fake pornography from Google
Content about you on sites with exploitative removal practices from Google
Select financial, medical, and national ID information from Google
“Doxxing” content – content exposing contact information with an intent to harm
Google may also remove personal information that creates significant risks of identity theft, financial fraud, or other specific harms.
If you believe your request meets one of the guidelines mentioned above, you can make a removal request at Google’s form, found here.
‘In the age of doxxing, revenge porn, and misogynist trolls, this book is required reading. . .” Esquire, Best Books of Summer 2019
Carrie Goldberg is a victims’ rights attorney specializing in Internet-related harassment (and much worse). Since she launched her practice in 2013, she has become a major force in the legal industry. She is also an outspoken critic of the tech companies that enable such behavior.
In August, her first book, Nobody’s Victim, will be published by Little, Brown. In it, she examines a hidden world many people don’t know exists — one of online stalking, blackmail, and other disturbing issues. It tells the story of how she became determined to fight back and is now leading a revolution.
Nobody’s Victim invites readers to join Carrie Goldberg on the front lines of that war. Her battleground is the courtroom; her crusade is to transform clients from victims into warriors.
Riveting and essential, Nobody’s Victim is a bold and timely analysis of victim protection in the era of the Internet. This book is an urgent warning of a coming crisis, a predictor of imminent danger, and a weapon to take back control and protect ourselves — both online and off.
The formula search engines use to rank websites and determine whether they merit appearing on page 1 or elsewhere in search results.
Authenticity
The quality of being genuine; a valued quality among bloggers and the larger online community.
Astroturfing
Writing fake comments and reviews.
Branded Content
Content that promotes and cultivates a rapport between a targeted audience and a brand’s products and/or services.
Black Hat SEO
Using unethical methods to attempt to raise the ranking of websites in search engine results.
Content
Information delivered in any medium, whether text, videos, podcasts or images. (When two or more media are juxtaposed it is described as “multimedia content.”)
Content Aggregator
A software or web application which collects, combines and publishes a range of syndicated web content (such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts and video blogs).
Content Farms
Companies which create low-quality Internet content with the goal of having their content rank highly in online searches.
Digital Assets
Online images, multimedia and textual content files.
Domain Squatting (also known as cyber squatting)
Registering or using a domain name with the intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cyber squatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns the trademark contained at an inflated price.
Doxxing
Tracing someone or gathering information about an individual using sources on the Internet, then publishing their private information with malicious intent.
Forum
An online discussion site.
Link
A URL name or description providing an instant connection to a different Web site or section of a Web site. A Web site’s page rank on Google (and other) searches is influenced by the number of links pointing to it (“inbound links”), and the quality of the sites they are linking from.
Linkbait
A marketing technique to increase a website’s popularity by providing content that entices visitors to include a link to the website at their own sites.
Link farms
A website created solely for the purpose of increasing the page rank of other sites with indiscriminate outbound links. Most search engines penalize sites connected to link farms.
Name space
A person or company’s name online.
Online audit
An assessment of a subject’s online image: typically a person, business or organization.
Online communities
Social networks where people communicate online. Also called “virtual communities.”
Online image
A subject’s online reputation. Mainly determined by the content appearing in top results in a Google (or other search engine) search of the subject’s name.
Online monitoring
Real-time monitoring of the information available about a person, business, organization or other topic on the Internet, including on social media.
Online reputation management
Establishing, improving and monitoring the publicly available online information about a business or individual.
Page rank
A continually changing value based on a complex algorithm assigned to a Web site or page to determines its position in a search engines’ results – the higher the page rank, the more likely people will find the web site or page.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Strategically designing a Web site so it gains a higher page rank and consequently attract more new visitors.
SEO-optimized
Website or page that has been designed to be accessible to search engines and improve the chance that the website will be found and ranked by search engines.
Social media
Online communication between people using a variety of platforms, including blogs, forums and Twitter.
Social network
A network of individuals connected through a social media platform such as Facebook.
Sock puppet
An email or social media account set up to publish fake online content.
Transparency
Openness and sincerity in online communications.
Troll
A person who sows discord on the Internet by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community.
White Hat SEO
Search engine optimization techniques that involve no deception.
Viral Media
Content that attracts new viewers mainly through word-of-mouth in social networks and possibly result in significant and rapid visibility.
