In regards to the Web’s most prominent search engines, if a valid court order is obtained that declares that the specified content is defamatory, negative, or should otherwise be removed, that order can be presented to the search engines, and they will instruct a site to delete the content, or the search engine may directly remove the content.

Under common law, to constitute defamation, a claim must generally be false and must have been made to someone other than the person defamed. Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.

Tons of defamation takes place on the Web: the Internet is teeming with anonymously posted lies about the sexual health, infidelity, or criminal record of others. Most of the time, online service providers are not liable for content that their users post. But they can be legally asked to remove defamatory content, and can be subpoenaed to provide specific user information related to the offending poster.In a defamation lawsuit, the defamed person must prove that there’s been a statement that is all of the following: 1) published, 2) false, 3) injurious, and 4) unprivileged.

Importantly, the statement must be false. Adverse public statements about legal citizens presented as fact must be proven false to be defamatory or slanderous/libellous. Statements of opinion that cannot be proven true or false will likely need to apply some other kind of defense.

In most cases, it’s enough to send a Web host a Cease and Desist letter to direct their attention to the defamatory content on the site they’re managing. The Web host should then entirely remove the defamatory content on request, or be faced with a lawsuit.