If you consider taking your complaint about the defamation
any further, should it not be removed immediately, you will want to ensure that
your complaint is treated as sufficient legal notification to the website
owners about the defamation you suffer.
A court will vigorously assess your attempts to facilitate
the removal of the defamation prior to issuing legal proceedings and if the
court considers that you did not take sufficient steps, it might refuse to
accept that the website owners are guilty of defamation against you.
There are two methods by which you can sufficiently notify the owners of a website about your complaint regarding defamation.
The first is by following the website’s own complaint
reporting process and the second is by writing your own complaint letter. Whichever method you choose, it is important that
you are able to prove the precise date and time where the website owner was
first notified.
So what information should go into a defamation complaint
letter? Whether you follow the website’s
procedure or create your own letter.
1.
Clearly set out your name and address.
2.
Give clear detail about the nature of the
information in question.
3.
List in sufficient detail why the information is
unlawful and if it is defamatory – why it is defamatory.
The above 3 elements of your complaint are the bare minimum
you should include.
In certain cases such as with websites like Amazon and
Youtube you might be encouraged to use the website’s own specific complaints
procedure. You are under no obligation
to follow the website's own complaint procedure but you might find it useful to
do so as this will ensure that your complaint does arrive at the right place.
Always make sure that you keep good copies of any forms that
you submit and of any responses that you receive from the website’s owners.
For advice on similar issues to the above read our webpage removal blog at the Internet Law Centre.
For advice on similar issues to the above read our webpage removal blog at the Internet Law Centre.
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