The Dark Side of Internet Freedom: How Bogus Online Reviews Can Sink a Small Business

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Small business owners today enjoy incredible opportunities for sales growth and development thanks to the power of online communities.

The ability to reach out to almost anyone in the world -- the ability to launch massive word-of-mouth campaigns -- has taken small business owners to places they only dreamed about a few decades ago.

But there’s also a dark side to Internet freedom.

See, if you can say something nice about someone online, you can also say something terrible. And although “mean” comments between two individuals may cause emotional distress, a few well-placed and scathing reviews against a business can cause a lot more than hurt feelings -- they can shut the business down.

Indeed, as noted in a 2012 article titled “Internet Defamation Claims on the Rise as Online Reviews Impact the Bottom Line,” negative online reviews can be deadly for a business:

A 2011 Harvard Study quantified the effects of a positive Yelp review.  The study found that a single star increase, on Yelp’s five-star rating system, among posts for Seattle restaurants led to a 5-9 percent growth in the business’ revenue.

Conversely, a one-star review can sometimes have catastrophic financial consequences.  According to the Herald-Tribune, Online criticism sparks real world defamation lawsuit, Michael Rassel, owner of Razworks, a computer graphics company, found that a single person’s one-star review on Yelp dropped his annual income by 70 percent.  One online tirade against him, according to Mr. Rassel, resulted from a customer wanting, and ultimately pressuring, him to provide extra services for free.  The post called Mr. Rassel a “scam liar and complete weirdo.”  “They see something like this on the first page of Google, they’re gone, they’re not even going to give me a second thought.”

Now don’t get us wrong: if a business treats its customers terribly, those customers should have the right to sound off on review sites. That's how free speech and free markets work.

Also, it's important to note that a few businesses have actually attacked consumers for posting negative online reviews, setting up sticky free speech battles.

But what happens when a business starts getting bombarded with fake reviews? What options do businesses have to combat the damage? Sadly, there aren't many.

Consider, for example, the story of Gregory Gibson of Charlotte, N.C.

Gibson claims his trailer-restoration company, Vintage Airstream, lost a large percentage of its business after anonymous commenters started posting what he says are bogus online reviews a few years ago.

"You hear about it," he told TheBlaze in a phone interview.  “But until you actually experience it personally, you’re never going to fully understand the carnage it creates.”

“Being embroiled in this,” Gibson added, “I don’t think most people or most legislators realize how profoundly traumatic an experience like this can be to an individual and a business.”

Gibson started buying, restoring and selling vintage trailers in the late 1990s. It soon became his sole source of income and it wasn’t long before he took his business online.

At first, business was booming. But that was before the trouble started. That was before negative reviews starting popping up all over the place.

Gibson said the alleged false reviews, which are ongoing to this day, have affected his business, his family and his friends.

“The technology is still sort of new. There aren’t many attorneys who handle this kind of stuff or understand it,” he said. “So you end up doing a lot of research and homework on your own. There aren’t really a whole lot of resources.”

He has meticulously documented the attacks, amassing nearly 13 folders worth of negative comments posted to blogs, competitor websites, and forums.

Courtesy: Gregory Gibson

Courtesy: Gregory Gibson

Along with WBTV-TV, TheBlaze reviewed several of the negative comments directed at Gibson’s business. And though we cannot say with absolute certainty which ones are phony, a few definitely raised some questions.

For example, take a look at these three nearly-illegible reviews:

Does this seem suspicious to you? (Image: Screen grab)

Notice they were all posted on the exact same day (May 24, 2011) by supposedly different users. Now that doesn’t prove they’re fake – but it does seem suspicious. Seriously, what are the odds three separate users posted nearly unreadable reviews on the exact same day?

The North Carolina Department of Justice did not immediately return TheBlaze's request to confirm whether it had been contacted by angry consumers claiming to have been scammed by Gibson.

And here’s something interesting: according to Gibson and a few lawyers who specialize in online defamation, several of the smaller “scam report” sites offer suspicious-sounding “advocacy programs” where they offer to alter online criticism in return for “thousands of dollars.”

Gibson said he’s not going down that road – but he’s running out of options.

Image: Screen grab

“Last year I filed a federal suit with an attorney here [in North Carolina],” the business owner told TheBlaze. “Several lawyers told me my case was very strong. We filed suit and it went to a federal judge in federal court.”

“The judge didn’t even look at the causes of action,” Gibson continued, “he dismissed it right off the bat on jurisdictional issues.”

He said he believes his troubles originate with a Texas-based competitor, adding that the biggest problem with online defamation is that no one is being held accountable.

But that’s not to say Gibson is completely helpless. Luckily for him, there are a few lawyers who specialize in fighting this sort of thing.

The North Carolina business owner has since sought legal counsel from Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, in Cincinnati.

“There’s a large problem with online defamation against small business owners and individuals,” the firm's Whitney C. Gibson told TheBlaze. “A lot of people just don’t know what to do and they’re being hurt out there.”

“We don’t go after disgruntled customers asserting their opinions,” he added, noting they have no intention of infringing on free speech rights. “A lot of the time when you see these negative review campaigns it’s from a competitor, or an ex-love, an ex-business partner … basically somebody’s mad at somebody. And they want to take someone down on the Internet.”

The Cincinnati-based lawyer continued, explaining how bogus reviews posted to sites such as ripoffreport.com can affect Google searches. Anti-scam sites rank high on popular search engines – so a few false (but well-placed reviews) will be the first thing online users see when they search for a specific company.

“False allegations can be enough to deter interest in a business,” Whitney Gibson added. “What we can do then, I can serve a subpoena, often identify who that person is, and then either negotiate with the defamer to remove the harmful material or file a lawsuit to get it removed.”

“In cases where we have not been able to identify the anonymous defamer, we have been able to get an injunction, and give it to the Google and they’ll index it from the search engine. Often, removing the defamatory material from Google substantially reduces the number of people who will see the online defamation,” he said.

But he noted the problem posed the statute of limitations. Generally speaking, he explained, the statue of limitations in most states for online defamation is about one year. After a year, the victims don’t really have a case to pursue their accuser. Even worse, as time goes on, bogus reviews work their way to the top of Google search results.

Furthermore, he continued, the Communications Decency Act contains an odd loophole.

Simply put, even if a person is caught posting fake reviews and they admit to it, the false review won’t come down unless the hosting site agrees to take it down. The bill protects the site from having to remove bogus content. And although this makes perfect sense from a free speech standpoint, it does pose a bit of a problem in regard to defamation cases.

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“I think the [Communications Decency Act] is a little misguided there,” Whitney Gibson said. “In some instances, it results in people never being able to pull that stuff down and the damage being permanent.”

Again, even if the business owner successfully outs fake reviews (which is difficult enough already), there's nothing he can do about it if the hosting site refuses to take it down.

The lawyer ended by predicting there will be a change to the Communications Decency Act at some point that requires websites to remove material that a court has deemed defamatory from the Internet. Until then, he concluded, there will continue to be situations where businesses have permanent defamatory material about them on the Internet.

But even with the difficulties presented with the Communications Decency Act and the average statute of limitations on online defamation, Gregory Gibson is determined to fight his alleged detractors.

“It can be a truly debilitating situation to be in,” he said, adding that he is grateful for legal assistance. “My advice to other victims is to fight back. Turn the tables on your attackers and call a good attorney.”

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Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

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