Anonymous online harassment often harms your reputation and your career
Online harassment has serious offline consequences. How to stop online harassment first of all depends on your ability to identify your harasser. Suddenly, all of your thoughts are about how to get the defamation off the internet as soon as possible and with long term effects. In many cases, the harassment on the internet is created by an anonymous user and you may wonder if and how, not only can the harassing and defamatory content be removed but how the anonymous user can be stopped from posting more and be made accountable for this wrongdoing.
How to discover the identity of an anonymous harasser
Finding anonymous users that are posting harassment defamation on the internet is what we do at Cohen Davis on a weekly basis. Our investigatory team of internet lawyers go to extensive lengths to obtain details of the identity of online harassers by securing it from the site owner, domain registrar or Internet Service Provider and here, we work skilfully and tactfully to increase the likelihood of it being provided, swiftly and inexpensively.
Once we have established the defaming publisher's identity and contacted them, we may also contact all administrators, copyright holders, technical teams and advertisers of where the defamation on the internet has been published to make them aware of the potential legal liabilities and ultimately persuade them to remove all defamatory material without delay. This usually results in the removal of all or most of the defamation online as soon as possible.
What happens after you discover the identity of your online harasser
Many of the perpetrators, on receiving a letter from us, remove all of the defamation and harassing posts that they have created on the internet about you, as soon as possible. Firstly, because they have been found and they want to remove all evidence against them for fear of exposure. Many online harassment perpetrators are professionals themselves and they may want to protect their own reputation and prevent their families/peers/colleagues/clients/pupils from finding out what they have been doing. Many admit immediately, remove the material, promise never to do it again by a long term legally binding agreement and they pay legal costs and damages to you, quickly.
Of course, if they don't do take the appropriate steps and we advise you to proceed with a legal claim, their lack of response in not removing the harassing posts from the internet goes against them if it does go to court for this would be seen as incorrigible behaviour. How online harassers react varies and depends on their characteristics and psychological make-up.
Often, as we have experienced with many of our online harassment cases, we have to negotiate extensively and we tread carefully, through experience, which means we are more likely to help resolve our clients' defamation issues successfully and for the long term.
Who can help you identify anonymous online harassers
If you are seeking help to identify your online harasser, to dissuade a publisher from going ahead with a possible imminent publication that you are aware of that contains harassing content about you or that breach your privacy issues may arise, seek legal advice from an internet law experts social media solicitor, who is well-versed in the strategic and legal considerations. If the publication is harassing, as well as defaming you, any prospect of starting a claim will need to be considered very carefully.
It may be that not only are you being harassed on the internet and your reputation feels fragile but there could be more complexities like online impersonation and hate speech attached to your case (not all online defamation cases are straightforward) and that is why it is important to choose the right internet law solicitors to assist you.
The initial choice of law could prove to be vitally important to the prospects of a successful outcome. Whatever your defamation on the internet case entails, particularly if you feel harassed by it, there is a great likelihood that we can help - 0800 612 7211.