united-states internet defamation
Removal of defamatory online content
<p>A former disgruntled employee wrote some defamatory comments about me two months ago, and listed them on a site which has a very strong ranking on google. The employee made false claims, and derogatory comments that are completely untrue and I contacted the employee about removing the content. </p>

<p>The employee apologized and attempted to remove the content, but the site will not remove it, and the website hides behind <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act" rel="nofollow">Communications Decency Act or the “CDA”, 47 U.S.C. § 230</a>. This employee signed an NDA and breached the NDA when writing their comments about me and the company. </p>

<p>What do I do? I would like to sue this employee, but she is overseas. I need a court order to have this site be removed by Google.</p>

<p>The short answer is, get a lawyer. The longer answer is that it is not clear how this works. There is evidence from The Interwebs that one can get a court order to remove defamatory online material such as <a href="http://www.defamationremovalattorneysblog.com/2015/04/how-to-remove-a-defamatory-blog-post-or-site/" rel="nofollow">here</a>. That discussion is centered on facts that don't hold here, e.g. a somewhat cooperative provider or an unknown defamer. It <a href="http://forum.freeadvice.com/libel-slander-defamation-88/how-can-i-get-court-order-remove-slanderous-comments-website-468705.html" rel="nofollow">seems</a> that you file an ex parte motion to remove the content and identify the defamer (not sure if that is a required element of the motion). There is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act#Defamatory_information" rel="nofollow">wealth of case law</a> supporting provider immunity. So, it is quite possible that the only remedy is to get the employee to sue the provider forcing them to take down the defamatory material. It would certainly be unjust for a provider to willfully put a customer in permanent legal peril (the threat of being sued). That doesn't mean that it is legally impossible for them to be stubborn.</p>
