In today’s digital age, a brand’s reputation can be built—or tarnished—almost overnight. While positive reviews and testimonials can drive growth, online defamation or other false and misleading content can significantly harm your brand’s credibility, customer trust, and bottom line. At McCune Law Group, we understand the stakes involved when your business reputation is unfairly attacked online. Here is how you can legally protect your brand from online defamation and false reviews.
Understanding Online Defamation
Online defamation occurs when false statements are made about a person or business, published online, and cause reputational harm. This can come in the form of negative reviews, social media posts, blog articles, or even videos. For businesses, these defamatory statements can result in lost customers, damaged partnerships, and significant financial losses.
Defamation can generally be broken into two categories:
- Libel – Written defamatory statements (e.g., bad reviews, blog posts)
- Slander – Spoken defamatory statements (e.g., videos, podcasts)
If you are facing a false review or an untrue damaging statement, it is critical to assess whether the content meets the legal threshold for defamation.
How to Spot Defamation Versus Opinion
Not all negative comments qualify as defamation. Opinions are typically protected under free speech laws, even if they are harsh. However, false statements of fact are not protected.
Examples:
- Opinion: “I didn’t like the service; it felt overpriced.” (protected speech)
- Defamation: “This company scams customers by illegally overcharging them.” (potentially actionable if false)
Knowing the difference is key before pursuing legal action.
How to Protect Your Brand from Online Defamation
- Monitor Your Online Presence: Stay alert to new mentions of your brand by setting up Google Alerts and using reputation management tools.
- Document Evidence: Take screenshots, save URLs, and record dates and times whenever you spot potentially defamatory content.
- Respond Professionally: If appropriate, respond calmly and factually to negative posts. Avoid emotion reaction or public arguments.
- Request Content Removal: Contact the platform hosting the defamatory content and request removal based on violations of terms of service.
- Send a Cease-and-Desist Letter: Have an attorney draft a formal letter demanding the removal of false statements to deter further harm.
- Pursue Legal Action if Necessary: If the issue persists, consider filing a lawsuit to seek removal of the content and recover damages for reputational harm.
Preventative Measures to Strengthen Your Brand’s Reputation
While you cannot completely prevent online defamation, you can make your brand more resilient to attacks:
- Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews.
- Engage professionally with all reviews, even critical ones.
- Maintain transparence and ethical practices in all dealings.
- Educate your team on public communication standards.
By building a strong, positive online presence, defamatory remarks are less likely to dominate the conversation about your brand.
Choose McCune Law Group to Help Protect Your Business Reputation
At McCune Law Group, we understand that your business reputation is one of your most valuable assets. Our commercial litigation lawyers proudly represent small- to mid-sized companies throughout the country to help them maintain a foothold on the American Dream. Our team has years of experience litigating a broad range of commercial lawsuits against a variety of defendants, including large corporations and other entities. Whether the defendant is a customer, business partner, or competitor, we are dedicated to passionately advocating for your business’ right to receive compensation for the injustices that threaten its operations.
If your brand is under attack or you want to proactively protect yourself, contact us today for a free evaluation. We are ready to stand with you to defend your reputation.