If someone has registered their own domain and set up their own blog or webpage, they enjoy broad freedom to publish almost any personal opinions or true facts – no matter how extreme or unflattering.
However, if someone is posting content on a public social media site, hosted blog, forum, or wiki – there is a good chance it falls under a formal terms of service (“TOS”) or terms of use that governs what kind of content is permitted.
If you discover a negative or objectionable blog post or thread about you, you can easily make a case that it goes against (the spirit of) the site’s TOS – and ask the administrators to remove it.
Why TOS’ Exist
TOS exist to protect the site’s owners from lawsuits, and also serve to protect the site’s community from harm and disruptive behavior. When a site or blog allows anonymous comments, the owners are not liable for them. But when a site requires registration and collects personal information and e-mail addresses, as most social sites do, they have more legal liability to police the content. Therefore, the TOS serves as a contract that you must accept before signing up using the site, giving the owner explicit guidelines and rights to censor content and revoke privileges.
Find the Person With the Power to Take Action
If you are concerned about negative or defamatory information posted on a forum or community, start by creating an account on the service and contact the “room” or section moderator. Humbly and politely state why you feel the negative information violates the spirit of the TOS (drop a link or excerpt for reference), and ask if they would kindly consider editing or removing it. I’ve had success doing this.
If you can’t get a hold of any lower-level moderators, you can always appeal to the webmasters. The TOS will usually list an e-mail address for report trouble or abuse.
Sometimes, though, these accounts either 1.) get too many e-mails or 2.) get checked very infrequently – and you won’t get any response. In this case, look up the WHOIS information, follow the trail of clues, and use the phone or fax until someone takes a look and responds.
Good luck!
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