Do you want to have content removed from Google? If you live in the U.S., your options are far different than if you live in Europe. Being an informed consumer will help you avoid making costly mistakes. These are tips for becoming one.
Review the “Terms of Use” or “User Terms” of the website where the content appears. Many sites no longer approve the publishing of inappropriate and defamatory content. So if such content does not meet their requirements, you or your representatives can email a request for it to be removed. (Recently, we saw such content removed within minutes, though it can take longer.)
Become familiar with the U.S. Communications Decency Act, the primary U.S. law governing the Internet. It frees website owners for liability regarding what is posted on their sites. This law determines whether Google can or will honor your request to remove content.
Google’s Official Site for Removal Requests
Google provides consumers with this site to report content they believe warrants removal from the Internet: Removing Content From Google. On that site, Google states that whether or not content will be removed is “based on applicable laws.” By that, Google means the Communications Decency Act. If the content is protected by that law, Google will not remove the material.
The Lumen Database collects and analyzes legal complaints and requests for removal of online materials, helping Internet users to know their rights and understand the law. It is published by a collective of law schools, including Harvard. Lumen is an independent 3rd party research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content. Its goals are to educate the public, to facilitate research about the different kinds of complaints and requests for removal–both legitimate and questionable–that are being sent to Internet publishers and service providers, and to provide as much transparency as possible about the “ecology” of such notices, in terms of who is sending them and why, and to what effect. If you send a request to Google to remove content online, they may share it with Lumen to contribute to the body of publicly available information on the topic.
(To learn how many dubious online reputation management providers gamed Google’s content removal request system, check out The Wall Street Journal’s expose, Google Hides News, Tricked by Fake Claims. The reporters analyzed Lumen’s records to uncover thousands of fake requests and reported them to Google, which removed over 50,000 links as a result.)
Know Your Options in the Event of Defamatory Content
The article, An Attorney’s Advice for Removing Negative, Defamatory and Infringing Material from the Internet, by Christine Rafin, Esq., is a helpful guide. Check our our new YouTube video, too: Your Internet Legal Rights in the U.S. & Abroad: Online Reputation Management.
