{"id":1437,"date":"2015-01-06T14:04:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T22:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bullivant.wpengine.com\/?p=1437"},"modified":"2021-07-26T14:10:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T21:10:33","slug":"what-can-a-business-do-when-it-is-under-attack-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/what-can-a-business-do-when-it-is-under-attack-on-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can a Business Do When It Is Under Attack on Social Media?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social media makes it so easy to express an opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is sometimes a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyone can tweet, post to a blog, comment on Facebook, Instagram photos and engage in all sorts of instantaneous expression of opinion. But when these public comments turn negative and harm a business, what if anything can the business do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is not comfortable being the target of negative comments published to the world on social media. Negative published comments about the quality of a motel, the performance of a pianist, the experience at a restaurant or any other conveyor of goods or services are all made available publically to members of the consuming public. Given the long lasting nature of the Internet, these published comments can live on forever and can have a singularly harmful impact years after the fact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A reviewer on TripAdvisor.com posted a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/portland\/index.ssf\/2014\/12\/anonymous_tripadvisor_reviewer.html#incart_2box\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">negative comment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under an alias concerning a Lincoln City, Oregon hotel, stating that the &#8220;rooms are nasty.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pianist Dejan Lazic asked <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Washington Post<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to pull a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-intersect\/wp\/2014\/10\/31\/pianist-asks-the-washington-post-to-remove-a-concert-review-under-the-e-u-s-right-to-be-forgotten-ruling\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">negative review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of a performance he gave years ago. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Washington Post <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">refused.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A couple was surcharged by a UK motel following their <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-england-30111525\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">negative comments<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of their motel experience published on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Reacting to Bad Reviews<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are all sorts of negative reviews published online. What is a business to do? Yelp, the website that encourages reviews, provides <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/biz.yelp.com\/support\/responding_to_reviews\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">guidance to businesses<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in responding to negative reviews. Yelp&#8217;s first rule is to &#8220;take a deep breath.&#8221; In reacting to bad reviews, keep the following in mind:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just because a negative review is posted online does not mean that the website operator is liable. Federal law (Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act) provides that ISP&#8217;s and websites are not normally liable when a member of the public posts a message.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just because a bad review is negative does not mean that it is legally defamatory. Negative statements, even if harmful, do not create liability under defamation laws when the statements are&#8230;\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merely opinions,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ambiguous or otherwise not capable of a defamatory meaning,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Substantially, though not completely, truthful, or<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The subject of the negative statement has not suffered special damages directly attributable to the negative statement<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>State Law Protecting Negative Reviews<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">California&#8217;s new &#8220;Yelp Bill&#8221; takes effect January 1, 2015 and prevents a business from including a non-disparagement clause in its terms of service or other consumer contracts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many states have a media shield law preventing disclosure by media\u2014including a website\u2014of the identity of an anonymous poster. This was the result in the TripAdvisor.com lawsuit mentioned above.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, many states have enacted anti-SLAPP statutes, prohibiting <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">trategic <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">L<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">awsuits <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gainst <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">P<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ublic <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">P<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">articipation. These statutes prohibit lawsuits relating to public statements in furtherance of the exercise of the public&#8217;s constitutional right to petition the government or the constitutional right of free speech in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Methods of Dealing with Bad Reviews<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One method of dealing with a bad review is the direct\u2014non-legal\u2014approach. That is, contact the customer\/reviewer (assuming this person&#8217;s identity is available, of course), talk about the negative experience, and try to satisfy the customer\/reviewer. You may be able to solve the problem and regain a customer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But if you want to, or need to, sue over a bad review, make certain that you understand and document all of the facts that you may need to prove your case:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Document the particular transaction or service that is the subject of the complaint, and verify the accuracy of the reviewer&#8217;s claim.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take photos.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Line up your witnesses and make certain that you obtain written statements promptly, because witness recall often dims over time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be mindful of the statute of limitations, and don&#8217;t wait too long to take action or your claim may become stale.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And very critically, document carefully all of your damages directly attributable to the negative review. Because unless you can show a direct connection between the bad review and identifiable and provable damages, your lawsuit may be lost before it begins.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Social media makes it so easy to express an opinion. This is sometimes a problem. Anyone can tweet, post to a blog, comment on Facebook, Instagram photos and engage in all sorts of instantaneous expression of opinion. But when these public comments turn negative and harm a business, what if anything can the business do?&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[100,97,148],"tags":[198],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-1437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-corporate-law","category-commercial-litigation","category-intellectual-property","tag-insights","authorormentioned-michael-ratoza","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1437"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=1437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}