Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
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BUSINESS CASE www.yourcompanysucks.com By Robert Todd Today's plugged-in, online world has posed a new threat to corporate Canada — the cybersmear. Disparaging comments can be posted on blogs and social networking sites at rapid speed and can spread around the world in a matter of minutes. But beware before you fire off a cease-and-desist letter — it's a different world out there. T here was a time when corporations needed only to keep an eye on the daily newspapers and watch nightly newscasts to know just what the public knew about them. With the rapid expansion of online media, po- tentially defamatory information can now pop up in unforeseen places and quickly gain traction. And if you're hearing about it for the first time on the televi- sion or learning about it in a newspaper, it may be too late. Roger McConchie, who among other specialties focuses his Vancouver practice on defamation and internet law, says cyber libel or cyber malicious falsehoods — commonly called "cyber- smears" — are an increasing concern for companies as the pop- ularity of online tools such as YouTube and Facebook expand. He notes that the focus of online defamation previously was with entities known as "suck sites," which were consumer-ori- ented web sites alleging companies' products were faulty. 42 FEBRU AR Y 2008 C ANADIAN Lawyer INHOUSE More recently, such activity has shifted to postings by un- happy insiders, disgruntled staff, or others who have a vendetta against a company and decide to launch an attack using social media such as chatrooms, blogs, or networking sites like Face- book, says McConchie. "More and more of the slagging that used to go on in the past has moved onto the web and more and more of corporate attention has moved onto the web," he says, adding that a lot of potentially defamatory statements remain online after being re- jected because of the way information circulates and is archived on the web. Such content can be very hazardous to small upstart compa- nies — whose ability to move forward depends largely on their ability to establish trust with consumers and partners — trying to gain entry to the market, says McConchie. "That stuff is, I won't say it's impossible to clean it off the © PHOTODISC / MEDIABAKERY