217Recovering from Online Smears
Then, note how the false negative information affects those goals. Is
it visible to all audiences or just to some? Is it very prominent in some
searches but less visible in others?
Next, create a set of recovery goals so that you can prioritize your
reputation repair efforts. If you have been the victim of multiple
smears (or even one smear spread across many sites), what negative
content is creating the largest problem for you—is there one attack
that is most visible? What audience is most important to you? What
audience is most affected by the smear?
When prioritizing, also consider possible responses to the smear.
It is very easy to debunk some smears: for example, it is very easy to
debunk a rumor that somebody did not graduate from college (just
upload some graduation photos) or is deceased (don’t laugh, it has
happened to celebrities and private individuals alike). In those cases,
it may be a sufficient response to make sure that the debunking is
more prominent in a search than the false allegation. That is a rela-
tively easy task to achieve. In contrast, some smears are difficult (if
not impossible) to disprove: for example, it is often impossible to dis-
prove a false allegation of infidelity. In those cases, you may have to
build a Google wall around the negative content in order to make it
less prominent or try to remove it at its source.
Be realistic when making your goals. Because of the nature of the
Internet, it can be impossible to remove all evidence of a smear. Often,
the best you can do is to make it practically invisible by replacing it in
a Google search with positive content—very few people look past the
first page of Google, so you can effectively hide false negative infor-
mation by banishing it to the depths of a Google search. Remember
that some sites—especially news sites and the most important blogs—
tend to show up very well in a Google search; it may be impossible to
completely exile these sites from the first ten Google results, or it may
take much more concerted effort. And, if you are facing an intentional
attack, always remember that the attacker may post new offensive con-
tent, especially if you counterattack her directly.
Step 3: Implement Your Plan
Now it is time to put your plan in action. No matter what, you will
want to use the same general tools described in Chapter 11 to claim
your online identity and to start to build positive content that will be
visible in Google. These tools will help you displace any kind of neg-
ative content and help build positive information that will drown out
the echoes of any negative content that survives your counterattack.
Steps for Responding to Accidental Content
The social Internet works like a giant machine that has been assem-
bled by thousands of people working from opposite sides of the
world without any coordination. Usually, the parts work together
well, and the right information is delivered to the right places. But,
every now and then the machine goes spectacularly wrong, and com-
pletely false information is copied from one site to another in a self-
reinforcing cycle. User profiles are created, tagged, and distributed
without human intervention or quality assurance. A fact that is ob-
viously wrong can be accepted by a machine without question and
copied onward ad infinitum.
When this happens to you, your best bet is often to try to find a
human being responsible for one of the broken parts and to try to
put the brakes on the machine. The best way to do so is to try to
identify the path through which the false information is spreading. If
you can find one site that is at a crucial juncture in the cycle, fixing
that site may stop the cycle and stop the information from spreading.
Often, automated sites have a button or a link that says some-
thing along the lines of “flag this page for review” or “mark as offen-
sive.” Using these buttons is often a good start, especially if clicking
the button gives you access to a form or an e-mail template that allows
you to explain the problem. When you explain the problem, speak as
calmly and rationally as possible. Explain the situation in a way that
would help an outsider with no familiarity with you or the problem.
Give all of the details that are necessary to solve the problem: the
218 Wild West 2.0
URL of the page with a problem, your name, the exact problem, and
so on. Support your request with links to verifiable information that
agrees with your version of events. Avoid blaming the webmaster,
avoid making extreme allegations about how the false information got
started, and avoid calling anybody lazy or negligent. Instead, explain
how the information is false, and try to work positively to fix it.
You may be shocked, outraged, angry, and offended to find false
information about you online. These feelings are legitimate. How-
ever, you must control them when you are working to fix your online
reputation. This is especially true when you are contacting other peo-
ple to recruit their assistance in solving your online reputation crisis.
Think about the problem from their perspective: they don’t know
you, they may not know anything about the problem, and they al-
most certainly receive many requests to fix things every day. Many
webmasters and site administrators are reasonable and are happy to
work with the rare person who carefully explains the situation, ex-
plains why the content is false, and makes a clear request.
On the other hand, if you e-mail a webmaster using an angry or
accusatory tone, then she may just choose to ignore you—or she may
even make the problem worse by highlighting the problematic con-
tent. In other words, the old adage applies to online reputation as
much as to anything else: you get more positive results online with
honey than with vinegar.
See the sample letter on the next page.
Unfortunately, many sites do not make it easy to get in touch
with a human being; one of the main attributes of online sites is that
they don’t require constant staff presence (unlike a retail store, which
must have a handful of staff around anytime it is open). If you en-
counter a site that makes it hard to contact an administrator, try to
find the e-mail address of a human who might be responsible: Look
in any “about us” pages or even through investor documents if avail-
able. If you still haven’t had any luck, try a generic e-mail address
such as “administrator@,” “webmaster@,” “info@,” “help@,” or “ad-
min@” plus the domain (e.g., “administrat[email protected]”). If
219Recovering from Online Smears
Dear Webmaster,
I appreciate the time you’ve spent building
PeopleTagger.com. I was browsing your site,
and I noticed that it looks like there has been
an error. At http://peopletagger.com/
JoeSmith/ there is a computer-generated pro-
file of me, Joe Smith. However, it looks like
the algorithm has combined two different
people. I am the Joe Smith that lives in Reno,
NV, and I work in the finance industry. You
can see my work profile and photo at http://
megacorp.com/bios/JoeSmith.html to verify.
But the PeopleTagger algorithm appears to
have added information about a different
Joe Smith who lives in Las Vegas and was
convicted of casino robbery. A quick glance at
the mug shot of that Joe Smith, available at
http://vegassun.com/news/2004/2/24/casino_ro
bbery.html, will make clear that he and I are
different people. I was hoping that you could
correct the profile at PeopleTagger to reflect
the existence of two Joe Smiths in Nevada.
Again, I really appreciate your help and your
hard work on the site and I’d be happy to pro-
vide any more information you need.
Sincerely,
Joe Smith
220 Wild West 2.0
those addresses fail, try using a domain name lookup tool like
Whois.net to see if the website has provided an e-mail address with
its domain name registration. Or search Google for a customer ser-
vice name or telephone number; for example, many websites listed
the customer service phone number for Amazon.com long before
Amazon.com made it publicly available.
If you still cannot find a human being to talk to, or if a human
cannot (or will not) fix the problem, then you’re on your own. To the
extent possible, try to figure out where the website is drawing its
data, and try to put correct (or positive) data in that stream: for ex-
ample, if a personal profile site has an incorrect description of you,
you may be able to fix that by claiming your online identity. Other-
wise, you’ll just have to build a Google wall around the false negative
content.
Steps for Responding to an Attacker
Malicious attacks present unique dangers, but also unique opportu-
nities for resolution. The first step is to think about the seriousness
of the attack you are facing. Some malicious attacks are just one-off
events triggered by an attacker’s need to vent frustrations or by a ju-
venile desire to create mischief; these types of attacks often fade away
quickly and can be easily resolved. But other attackers are dedicated
and persistent, with a deep-seated grudge toward their victims.
These attackers are particularly dangerous because they may con-
tinue to spread their smears no matter what you do or say—and they
may become even bolder if they know that you are fighting back.
Identify Your Attacker
If possible, you should identify your attacker. Knowing your attacker
will give you insight into his methods and the risk of future attacks.
Sometimes, you will be able to work the problem out with your at-
tacker offline; often, online attacks start with relatively trivial offline
insults that can easily be worked out face-to-face. Other times, your
Recovering from Online Smears 22 1
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