CDA and Internet Abuse

CDA and Internet Abuse

The CDA or Communications Decency Act is a glaring example of government fixes that cause more bad then good. You see, the CDA or Communications Decency Act gives website and blog owners 100% immunity from civil suit when libelous or defamatory content is published on their websites. So whats the problem? With 100% immunity from civil action websites have began to act irresponsibly.

Ripoffreport.com is one example of this irresponsibility. This company makes major money off defamatory and libelous content that they publish via their website ripoffreport.com. What ripoffreport does is this: Ripoffreport.com will publish anything a person writes about another individual or company without checking the validity of that information. As part of our Internet Marketing Services, Bureau 24 often deals with ripoff reports. Some valid but more often then not we are dealing with complete fabrications by disgruntled employees and sometimes competitors.

One striking incident that comes to mind we proved a disgruntled employee posted a false report claiming they were an ex client and ripped off by one of our clients. We proved it because the same employee logged into the same account (named Ex Client) and posted a second report claiming to be an ex-employee with no knowledge of the initial report. We proved it because both reports were posted under the exact same user account.  Yet, ripoffreport refused to remove this information or to state in an edit that its false!

Furthermore, Ripoffreport attempted to ripoff the victim of this fraud by attempting to charge a hefty retaining fee for its corporate advocacy program. This is fraud and damn close to racketeering and it was all made possible by the CDA or Communications Decency Act.

I could go on and on about fraudulant reports but I believe you get the message.  And it isn’t just ripoffreport.com but its everyone from Google allowing ripoffreport spam to clutter up their search engine result pages or SERPs to services like Wordpress.com refusing to act against copyright infringement or libelous sites. The CDA or Communications Decency Act has given website owners free reign to act a fool and they are doing it.

Let’s talk about Google for a moment. Matt Cutts and crew are real big about their web design and SEO or search engine optimization rules. As far as Internet Marketing goes Bureau 24 adheres to 100% White Hat SEO or white hat search engine optimization techniques. However, when it comes to ripoffreport.com Google sees no evil like the page rank passing thru paid links or keyword stuffing.

So what is the real deal with the CDA or Communications Decency Act? Its about special interest wanting to form a fiefdom on the internet and muscle the rest of us into subservience. THERE was NEVER a NEED FOR THE CDA OR COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT.

Its responsibility for ones actions. If you are notified of copyrighted or trademarked material being illegally used on your web service put a stop to it or defend yourself in court.  If you are notified of libelous or defamatory content on your website fix it or defend yourself in court.  There is no need to give a special interest special immunities under the law.

Bureau 24 calls for the abolition of the immunity provision of the CDA or Communications Decency Act.