We are all increasingly hearing about hot button issues such as fake news controversies, the “digital divide” and the range of narratives influencing public opinion on the internet.
In the United States, those issues are affected by the laws governing free speech and Internet content. At Reputation Communications, we are committed to educating the greater public about the laws, opportunities and nuances inherent in Internet perception-shaping and publishing.
Here at You(Online), we publish the most extensive resources specific to those topics.
Recent highlights include the following articles, which examine the “Right to be Forgotten,” Internet laws and one way President Trump protected his brand–something every public figure and many CEOs should do.
Dan Shefet: Creator of the Internet’s OmbudsmanHe made worldwide headlines in 2014 when he forced Google to remove links to defamatory information about him. He has since established the Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy (AAID).
As a trusted source of information on these topics, our blog has attracted a worldwide readership and been cited in leading media platforms. Please share our content with your friends and colleagues who care about these issues…and follow us on Twitter @reputationnews.com.
Many people don’t know how to ask Google to remove content from the Internet. The first step is to learn what your options are. You can do that by visiting Google’s Legal Help section. An excerpt:
If you’ve come across content on Google that may violate the law, let us know, and we’ll carefully review the material and consider blocking, removing or restricting access to it. Abusive content on Google’s services may also violate Google’s product policies, so before sending us a legal request, consider flagging the post, image, or video for one of our content teams to review.
Understanding Google’s policy toward inappropriate content on websites is the first step in determining whether you have a case. That is explained in Google’s Terms of Service:
Our Services display some content that is not Google’s. This content is the sole responsibility of the entity that makes it available. We may review content to determine whether it is illegal or violates our policies, and we may remove or refuse to display content that we reasonably believe violates our policies or the law.
Google often requires a court order before it will remove content. This is an excerpt from the Court Order section of Google’s FAQ:
If a court has ruled that web pages in Google’s search results or content on a Google service is unlawful, you can submit the order through our troubleshooter for our review. Please note that we only accept valid court orders signed by a judge. We may voluntarily remove the content from our services if provided with specific URLs and if the terms of the court order indicate the content violates the law.
If your issue pertains to defamation, What to Do When You Are the Victim of Online Defamation, by David O. Klein, Esq. and Christine Rafin, Esq. may be a helpful resource. Another is the Lumen database, a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Lumen is a research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content. The organization’s goals are to educate the public, to facilitate research about the different kinds of complaints and requests for removal 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.
“Content” is text, video, photographs, podcasts and any other form of information placed online.
It is the biggest influence on a webpage’s rank. Your webpage’s rank determines where it shows up in Internet searches of your and your organization’s name.
Ranking also determines the prominence of third-party content about you, which is a large part of the reason it is important to understand where that content is coming from. Understanding those sources will play a key role in deciding how to manage that content—which is the heart of online reputation management.
Generally, the sites with the most daily visitors and views have the highest rankings, and the most prominent content. Top 10 websites include Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as major media sites. But there are other factors that influence where a webpage shows up. Even obscure sources can show up in the first page of searches.
Strategically crafted headlines
People often see an article about them – or their brands — from a little-trafficked blog (or some other relatively obscure source) on the first page of a Google search. This can often be the result of the way the headline is written, making the article seem especially relevant to the search terms. The longer the article stays near the top of search results, the harder it is to dislodge.
Tags
If you notice pictures of you showing up prominently on Google, it is because someone has tagged them. A tag is a caption that is added to the metadata of a photograph or to an article, blog post or other piece of text that is published online.
Internet data scraping
Data scraping is how your home address, age, family members’ names and age and satellite pictures of your home end up online. Programs (called ’bots) continually scrape the web for data from publicly available sources like county courthouses, telephone directories and other sites. It is then collected by public databases that package, publish and sell that information. If you find a lot of references to your address online, that is how it got there.
Aggregated content
Aggregated content means content that is republished from another source. The Internet is full of sites that republish content, especially content that will attract a lot of viewers, which includes celebrity- and VIP-related content. When you see versions of your photographs or other content about you on multiple minor sites (including sites that look junky or low-quality), they have aggregated that content.
Anonymous commentary
It is difficult to have anonymous comments about you removed from an online forum or other platform—but it can be done, especially if the material is clearly defamatory. Increasingly, websites are revising their comment and user policies to prevent libel. (The more obscure and independent a site, the less likely it is that they have such practices in place. See our safe browsing tips below.) If you are the topic of such content, look for their user policy. Often they will not only remove the offensive material when requested to do so, but they will block the user who posted it from their site.
Ultimately, you want to control as much of the online content about you and your organization as possible. The more high profile you are, the harder that is. But with strategic online reputation management, it is not impossible. Content drives Google results. It is now the most influential aspect of restructuring them. We are highly experienced in advising clients on what type of content to employ to reboot their Google results. We are experts in creating it, too. To learn more, please visit our Services page.
The Washington Post has published “The Fall of Roger Ailes,” an article that references 25 women who claim the former Fox News CEO harassed them. Their details support Gretchen Carlson’s sexual discrimination lawsuit against him. This situation won’t hurt Fox’s ratings. If anything, it will increase them.
It could hurt the Murdoch family, though. As more proof emerges that Roger Ailes led a culture rich in sexual harassment, the Murdochs will face a growing quagmire. Job discrimination is often linked to harassment. Federal laws govern such discrimination. The Ailes’ lawsuit has opened a Pandora’s box to a company culture that will be revealed in coming weeks. Details will spill online and off regarding not just Fox’s former CEO, but the many executives and news hosts who supported his behavior.
Rupert Murdoch is impervious to such associations. But his sons James and Lachlan, who now run his media empire with him, may not want to be affiliated with such a culture. With Fox their most profitable asset, how they navigate this crisis will be telling.
We often write about reputational threats to CEOs. As a contributor to The Wall Street Journal‘s “Crisis of the Week” column, I follow situations like this as they unfold, wondering how they were allowed to reach such a crisis point. In months to come, Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit could look small compared to the potential damage Fox News itself may face.
If you are a CEO, there are several ways you can ensure you do not find yourself in this type of position. Don’t stumble in the diversity arena. Stay aware of the key issues concerning women, especially those regarding employment opportunities, the lack of women on boards and the glass ceiling that continues to face many. Tuning in to these and related concerns will help you avoid becoming the focus of the next wave of hashtag protests (and nightly newscasts). It will also help ensure you avoid the type of reputation crisis that can impact your brand as well as your company’s stock valuation.
Here are additional tips to avoid other common workplace missteps:
1. Don’t be an out of touch CEO. CEOs attract blowback online when their actions or public comments make them appear out of touch with the majority of their customers and their community.
2. Beware of backtracking boards. Before making a big decision that will be evaluated by the greater public, boards of directors shouldseek outside opinion regarding how their decision will be viewed by the world at large. That includes the part that forms their consumer base. Too many boards continue to green-light decisions from which they have to publicly backtrack after consumers launch protests. Doubtful? Check out change.org and scan the numerous public petitions targeting public companies and various other organizations. These often go viral and end up on national news.
3. Monitor mean managers. And don’t be a jerk at work. Otherwise, you can become the subject of a discrimination suit like this one. So can your managers.
4. Encrypt your emails. Or just don’t say it in an email.
U.S. authorities fighting human trafficking have identified the Communications Decency Act as an obstacle to stopping the crime. Anti-trafficking groups agree. Free speech proponents beg to differ, though. So does Silicon Valley.
As the Journal article points out, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.com are among the tech companies that benefit from the Communications Decency Act.
We have written extensively about how the Communications Decency Act impacts online reputation management. If that is a topic of interest to you, then you will find Mr. McKinnon’s article illuminating.
Entertainment superstars Johnny Depp and Taylor Swift have been making more headlines than usual. Johnny Depp is going through an acrimonious divorce. Taylor Swift recently ended her relationship with DJ Calvin Harris. Amid a sea of headlines, both are managing their messaging well.
When the news of his divorce broke, Johnny Depp issued one statement:
Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life. Hopefully the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly.”
As social media ignited with speculation about Taylor Swift’s breakup, Calvin Harris tweeted this statement:
The only truth here is that a relationship came to an end & what remains is a huge amount of love and respect.”
Taylor Swift retweeted it. And that was that.
When celebrities face a crisis or escalated public interest in their lives, they are on the public stage. Anyone can play a role, whether by defending the celebrity or by escalating the crisis. Celebrities can’t control the conversation. But as Johnny Depp and Taylor Swift’s statements show, they can impact it.
The challenge to a successful career as a celebrity has long been attracting publicity while avoiding overexposure. Striking that balance has always required a nuanced strategy. In the old Hollywood studio system, every aspect of a star’s image was carefully orchestrated, including occasionally avoiding overexposure by pulling him or her out of the limelight for weeks, months, or even years. That is next to impossible now.
Constant online access
The Internet has presented many new opportunities, and challenges, for celebrities. It provides them with far more control over their messaging: they can publish statements and reach the public on their terms using their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter platforms. Beyonce has had tremendous success using that strategy. So has Rihanna. But with the opportunity for constant engagement it’s important to know where to draw the line. Not even the most popular star can maintain the public’s attention indefinitely.
Singers and other performers have more leeway in this area than movie or television stars, as new music, concerts, tours and other developments give them more relevant information to share with their audiences. Justin Bieber, for example, has built his career by sharing his music and life through social media. But he has also established more boundaries over how available he wants to be there.
Choosing the smart approach
When deciding to dial up or dial down your outreach, strategic monitoring of social media and mainstream discourse can provide data that, when analyzed, serves as a valuable management tool. During prolific periods of their careers, social media is an incredibly effective way for celebrities to harness and maintain their audience’s support. Between those peak exposure periods, celebrities can use them as less direct or invasive channels of communication. Philanthropy initiatives can also give stars new content to talk about and share online.
If you are a public figure aiming for longevity in your career and want to minimize the inevitable bumps along the way, following the messaging approach of stars like Beyonce, Johnny Depp and Taylor Swift will help you to succeed. Equally important is developing the right social media strategy. That includes deciding in part how much usage is too much, and which platforms work best at different times. And then, knowing when to step back.
In this week’s Reputation Reboot, we address why it takes so long for the first item on a Google search to be displaced. It explains why ORM is usually not a quick fix.
About You(Online)
Reputation Communications publishes You(Online) to help educate CEOs, C-Suite executives, rising stars and high net worth individuals about online reputation management.
Reputation Reboot addresses real-life online reputation management (ORM) challenges faced by CEOs, executives, VIPs and their organizations. Unless they are public figures, their names and related descriptions of all individuals and companies discussed are changed to protect their privacy. For a quick look at the types of situations facing many professionals, scroll down and check out the headlines.
Online reputation management enables you to take more ownership over what appears about you on the Internet.
Without it, the world controls how you look online.
Here are ten examples of the ways online reputation management is used by individuals, companies and organizations.
To ensure up-to-date and accurate information dominates search results for an organization or individual’s name.
To ensure that factual, credible reference material is readily available online.
That reduces the chance that fraudulent information will impact a brand.
To remove unwanted or inappropriate information, photographs or other content from the first few pages of Google search results.
To monitor social media and online forums for red flags signaling potential on- and offline threats against high-profile individuals and their organizations.
To create a strong online presence about a topic.
That presence acts as a barrier against potential distortions from third-party content, including anonymous and defamatory material. Without it, such items can go straight to the top of searches – and stay.
To ensure that your story is told by you and not by former partners or other potentially biased parties.
To establish a reputation within your area of expertise on multiple online platforms.
To create an online legacy for a VIP who is preparing for retirement or to exit an organization.
