Defusing a Google Bomb

Yale Law Journal Pocket Part, Vol. 117, 2007

5 Pages Posted: 4 May 2007 Last revised: 24 Oct 2012

Date Written: May 31, 2012

Abstract

Anonymous internet defamation is nothing new, but the recent Autoadmit controversy highlights one particularly difficult aspect of this problem: Google bombing. As private individuals are defamed on popular anonymous message boards, searches on Google and other engines return the defamatory posts as top hits for those individuals. This short essay suggests a notice and takedown solution modeled after the DMCA's similar provisions. I argue that such a solution is much more effective for the Google bomb problem than for copyright infringement because the parties involved are much more likely to have similar legal resources than in copyright disputes.

Keywords: anonymous speech, internet, defamation, autoadmit, google bomb

Suggested Citation

Horowitz, Steven J., Defusing a Google Bomb (May 31, 2012). Yale Law Journal Pocket Part, Vol. 117, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=982849

Steven J. Horowitz (Contact Author)

Sidley Austin LLP ( email )

One First National Plaza
Chicago, IL 60603
United States

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