RepDigger.com has its pros and cons. Being able to get your company on a good website to receive reviews and a summary of reputation is beneficial, but it can make you more susceptible to copyright infringement and defamation. We are going to explain everything you need to know for removing a post from RepDigger.com and how Reputation Rhino can help to get a post from RepDigger removed.
What is RepDigger.com?
RepDigger.com is a review website for people to share their experiences with others about using a company or interacting with individual professionals. RepDigger uses reviews, both the good and the bad, to calculate a reputation score on a scale of 0 to 100%. This reputation score, or “repscore,” shows a direct reflection of the quality of your business amongst consumers on RepDigger.
On RepDigger’s platform, anyone can make a post to offer their opinion of certain companies and then look around at other opinions to see the legitimacy and quality of their services from the perspective of others who have used them. Some of the companies who score lower in reviews get a “Bad” or “Average” RepScore. If there are fewer reviews that are all negative, that can reflect poorly in the score.
If your company gets a review and a RepScore on RepDigger.com, keep in mind that this does not necessarily signify your overall reputation online, it is only based on the reviews on the RepDigger site.
What is Online Defamation / Cyber Libel?
Online defamation, or cyber libel, is a way to hold someone responsible for the misinformation they spread online. Online Defamation happens when a user creates fake negative reviews and scam reports to ruin someone’s reputation intentionally. It is not as uncommon as it sounds, and it certainly does go to court in some cases.
Online defamation sometimes happens on review websites because people like to create fake reviews to ruin the reputation of a company. To get rid of fake reviews about your company, you must make the situation visible and show hard proof of its effect on your reputation.
Using a lawyer and going to court is how you would prove the online defamation and get a court order for removal of the content by the website owner. The website host would have to remove the content, but they do not get in any sort of trouble in the process.
Why is it Difficult to Remove Content from RepDigger.com?
Website hosts, moderators, and internet providers do not feel the repercussions of what people do on the site. Although moderators do help in chat forum situations, it can be hard to tell what is false and what is true since anyone can add to it.
No websites are responsible for third-party posts, but RepDigger has extra protection in its Privacy Policy that ensures that no one can try to accuse them of allowing false information on their site. The Privacy Policy is where you can find other useful information, such as their stand on the Communications Decency Act, Prohibited Uses, DMCA notices, and more.
Within the Privacy Policy, RepDigger clarifies that they do not take content down without either a DMCA notice or a court order – so those are your only two options.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
RepDigger has protection because of the CDA, otherwise known as the Communications Decency Act. Specifically, the protection lies under section 230, which safeguards online intermediaries that host or republish speech. Social media platforms, review sites, news outlets, and even reputation sites like RepDigger.com need to be able to safely share their user’s posts without worrying about legal trouble arising.
Unfortunately, the effects of this act make it exceedingly difficult to get some websites to cooperate. They do not have to go out of their way because their reputation is not on the line. If they want, the website host can offer minimal help.
Fair Use
When you are trying to remove content from a post due to copyright reasons, the person who made the post can claim Fair Use and make it to where you may never be able to take down the post. Fair Use allows the use of copyrighted content without authorization from the owner. However, someone cannot always get Fair Use on your material.
A claim for Fair Use can only happen if the person trying to use the content is doing it for creative reasons or if they are simply giving commentary on the subject. The determination of Fair Use is on a case-by-case basis, and not all situations end with a person getting the right to use your content.
How to Use DMCA to Remove Copyright Content from RepDigger.com
A DMCA notice would let RepDigger.com know of a copyright infringement problem that was happening to where they would have to take it down. When you make a DMCA, it needs to go to a designated DMCA agent for the site. RepDigger.com provides a contact email for sending the DMCA notice, and it will be a lot easier to handle putting it all together if you have some help from a reputation management service. The designated agent will ensure the copyright-infringing material gets taken down.
Your DMCA notice should include the following:
- Your signature (written or electronic)
- Identification of the original content
- Identification of the posted content accused of copyright infringement
- Your contact information for further communication about the copyrighted material
- The statement saying that you have good faith belief that the person did not have permission or authorization to use your copyrighted content in any way
- The statement saying the information in the DMCA is accurate, under penalty of perjury
The owner of the post you submit the DMCA against may submit a counter-notification, so pay attention to any further contact from the DMCA agent or the RepDigger.com website.
If you complete the DMCA notification correctly and the information is accurate and accepted, then the post should come down right away. Otherwise, you may need help from a lawyer.
How to Remove a Post on RepDigger.com
Removing a post on RepDigger.com is just as difficult as it would be to remove a post from any other website. Of course, when you have solid proof of copyright infringement, it will be much easier to get a quick response and removal, compared to trying to prove an online defamation case in court.
Online reputation management services help tremendously with getting through the time-consuming and challenging process of having content removed. If you are struggling to get content taken down and need help, you can reach out to Reputation Rhino to get help from online reputation management experts. Reputation Rhino will help with rebuilding your reputation. Some situations of online defamation are severely damaging to a business’s reputations, so repair is necessary.
Reputation Rhino can help with getting rid of negative posts from many review websites, including RepDigger.com. When you get these bad reviews eliminated, it makes it more likely for new customers to call you. Small changes now will help later on, so stay on top of your reputation and do what you can to remove any harmful content and take charge of your reputation.
