A small business owner in Canada had her reputation ruined on a U.S.-based Internet website. She suspects a competitor purposefully blasted her good name.

The allegedly defamatory statements appeared on TheDirty.com, a U.S. gossip site that allows users to post…well…whatever they want — pictures included.

Anonymous TheDirty.com Defamation

Like many online libel lawsuits, this one involves anonymous defamation.

The contested post alleges fraudulence and accusations of employee payment problems. The targeted company maintains the allegations are untrue.

TheDirty.com has been asked several times to delete the content, but [at the time of the original posting] it’s still up — which is causing cash flow problems for the targeted company.

Online Reputation Management

According to reputation management companies, victims of online defamation can outsmart the algorithms used by search engines. But its tougher to do when the offending website is popular.

Defamation Legal Action

Depending on the circumstances, businesses can sometimes use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to get information removed from a website.  But it wouldn’t work in this case. Another option is contacting the poster personally and requesting a removal. Otherwise, get a lawyer involved, who can help minimize the impact using legal tools.