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Help with a defamatory negative review

by iluvmoney
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi guys,

I own a offline business, we have had someone post a defamatory negative review about us on another website.

When searching for my business the website which the negative review has been posted on comes up 3rd!

I have contacted the website in question and they refuse to remove the
defamatory review and say it's up to the person who posted to remove it (which they won't obviously)

What are my options?

I was thinking the "right to be forgotten" path but not sure if this would work. Legal way would be very expensive as I have looked into this.

What can I do SEO wise?
#defamatory #negative #review
  • Profile picture of the author iluvmoney
    Also this site is based in the US and has nothing to do with the UK market of our industry.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    The right to be forgotten thing has nothing to do with reviews. Also, it was enforced in the EU, not the US.

    Your only option is to create other properties and outrank it with enough of them until it gets pushed to page 2.
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    • Profile picture of the author iluvmoney
      No but the site is featuring on google.co.uk but is an American website. it also has our personally names on the website.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
        Originally Posted by iluvmoney View Post

        No but the site is featuring on google.co.uk but is an American website. it also has our personally names on the website.
        The right to be forgotten does not cover reviews of a business.

        The right to be forgotten "reflects the claim of an individual to have certain data deleted so that third persons can no longer trace them." It has been defined as "the right to silence on past events in life that are no longer occurring." The right to be forgotten leads to allowing individuals to have information, videos or photographs about themselves deleted from certain internet records so that they cannot be found by search engines.
        My understanding is that unless the review is talking about something like how an owner committed a crime 10 years ago, it is not going to be covered. Really, a lawyer would be best to talk to about that though.

        As I said, likely your only real option is to outrank it.
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        • Profile picture of the author iluvmoney
          Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

          The right to be forgotten does not cover reviews of a business.



          My understanding is that unless the review is talking about something like how an owner committed a crime 10 years ago, it is not going to be covered. Really, a lawyer would be best to talk to about that though.

          As I said, likely your only real option is to outrank it.
          The lawyer is far to expensive.

          The other way we were thinking is to post on the same domain/website a positive review and see if that will push down the other page.
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