Ask Slashdot: Undoing an Internet Smear Campaign? 338
An anonymous reader writes "My fiancee is a professional writer. She has a great industry reputation and everyone that knows her loves her. But her ex-husband has maintained a number of websites in her name (literally, the URL is her name) that are filled with insane ravings and defamatory content. Have you ever had to deal with an internet smear campaign? The results float to the top of every Google or Bing search of her name. He currently lives abroad and cannot be served with legal papers. His websites are hosted overseas as well, and do not respond to conventional letters or petitions. Because of his freedom of speech rights, few U.S. courts will assert that his websites are truly libelous, either, and it's still difficult to prove any real 'damages' are done by it. Still, we'd like to see them go away. I'm turning to the best community of geeks in the world: how do I deal with this given the limited options at my disposal?"
As The Maxim Goes (Score:5, Funny)
What Happens On The Internet, Stays On The Internet.
Alert! Alert! (Score:5, Funny)
This sounds like a tactic to get you to set a date for the wedding... Being a woman, she would have already through of this as the easy out that once she get's married she'll likely change her last name which would help greatly with this issue. Given you haven't brought that up in your post, I'm guessing she hasn't mentioned it to you. This means that your wedding isn't any time in the near future or a date hasn't been set at all. So, I'm guessing you've proposed at some point but aren't commited enough to tie the knot. Once a big deal has been made of this situation, she will suddenly come up with the 'idea' that getting married will solve things, and the sooner the better.
I'm telling you this because you also need to keep an eye on things in the contraceptive department because if this little ruse doesn't work to get you to hitched, that will be next on the list.
Look, I know a lot of people here claim to know things they don't, but I am posting as Annonymous Coward because I don't have a slashdot account so you can trust that I know a lot more about women than most people her. Stay strong my brother.
4chan (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Murder (Score:5, Funny)
Concrete shoes.
I'd argue he should wait (Score:5, Funny)
My suggestion is to hold off until you've been married to her for a year or so - that way, you can better determine whether her ex-husband's statements are indeed a smear campaign or are rooted in fact.
Re:Fight speech with more speech? (Score:5, Funny)
" I'm turning to the best community of geeks in the world" - You're on the wrong website. Try 4Chan...heheheh
Re:three letters... (Score:5, Funny)
In addition, I would take that fact as a red flag and reconsider whether I really want to be married to this person. Maybe what he says has merit? Maybe she is a fucking sociopath? Do you know the ex-husband? Maybe spend the time learning about him and be objective.
Apparently the ex reads slashdot.
Re:three letters... (Score:5, Funny)
There's actually *more* fun to be had there. You don't have just the luxury of making your online presence, but as many alter egos with the same name as you'd like. You can bury yourself in so much varied information that no one will know what to believe.
I found out the hard way, that there's always some asshole (or sometimes many) who want to find you. Let me tell you about one in particular.
I worked for a place for a long time. I got laid off because someone would do it cheaper (and worse). A few years later, some third party I knew absolutely nothing about decided to sue the company. Because I had access to so much information while I was there, they decided I would testify for them.
Part of this luxury paid witness gig I would have to spend at least a couple days about 400 miles from. At this particular time, I wasn't working, and my savings were dropping down below nil. Good gig, some may think. They gave me something like $20 in checks, and a subpoena for all kinds of paperwork that I either never had, or no longer had. I countered with an offer for my advertised hourly rate, and per diem expenses, which they responded with laughter and a bench warrant. Well, they said they had the bench warrant. It turns out it was a lie. Hmm.. Lawyers lying, say it's not so.
As the senior IT guy, I *had* access to every electronic document, and knew every password, and knew where all the secrets were kept. Oddly enough, the day I was cut loose was the day all the passwords were changed. All of my access to everything was lost. I made it a habit not to even archive my email at home. When they cut me loose, I dumped my email. I didn't want it any more. I sure as hell didn't keep it laying around for years. I needed the drive space for porn. :) Just kidding. With my newly found luxury time, I rotated through machines trying out different OSs, just because I could. I always kept one up to send out resumes every day.
So with no fundage, nothing to contribute to the court, and no way to get there, I wrote the judge a very nice letter, copied to the counsel on both sides, saying basically I didn't have anything they wanted (line item by line item), and that I didn't have funds to participate in their games.
I then started on a lucrative career in house sitting and transporting cars. Well, lucrative as in I had somewhere to sleep and food to eat, but no expendable cash. I did get around a bit, because I knew what was coming next.
The assholes that were suing, and I refer to them kindly as that, decided to go on a quest. They were going to find me, with law enforcement in tow, and "compel" me to testify. Basically, they had something in legaleeze that said handcuffs were acceptable to make someone testify in a BS civil lawsuit. Their private investigators with an off duty law enforcement officer, kept showing up to places I either used to be at, or claimed I was at online. Between MySpace, Facebook, FourSquare, and Twitter, I made a very clear trail to follow, and follow they did. Some of it was echoed back to me indirectly that they were going out to whenever I said I was, even though the echoing party didn't know that's what I was claiming. :)
I wasn't sure how much pull they had, so when I could borrow some cash, I'd pick up pre-paid credit cards (Like the Green Dot cards), and have them sent back to one of the known addresses in my name. They would then mail them off to other friends in other states for them to use. Those friends would send cash back to the person who paid for it, so nothing was really lost. It's strange, I can buy a tank of gas in California, have dinner in Seattle, and then buy cigarettes in Alaska, while my online presence said I was in New York, but chattering about recent earthquakes in Los Angeles.
At one point, I went my family financed cell phone on a cross country trip. I'd leave it turned on, so it would go as long as possible on
Re:four letters... (Score:3, Funny)
I can't find a link.
Good for you, man. It would've probably cost you 300 Euros.