Online & Reputation
Defamation, harassment, accounts, and online marketplaces.
13 guides
- Crypto scams and lost crypto
Crypto scams can involve stolen funds, compromised accounts, lost private keys, impersonation, or false claims made about a person or business. Blockchain transactions are often difficult or impossible to reverse, but reporting, preserving evidence, securing accounts, and contacting relevant platforms may improve the c
- Deepfakes and impersonation
Deepfakes and impersonation can create overlapping legal issues involving defamation, privacy, harassment, fraud, intellectual property, and misuse of personal data. The available response often depends on what the material shows, whether it is sexual or threatening, where the people involved are located, and how the c
- Deleting an account and your data for good
Deleting an online account usually stops or limits future use of the service, but it may not immediately remove every copy of information connected with it. Privacy laws in some places provide a right to request deletion, subject to exceptions for legal obligations, security, disputes, records, and public-interest purp
- Free speech at work and online
Free speech protections at work and online depend heavily on who is speaking, who owns the workplace or platform, and whether the speech involves threats, harassment, confidential information, or unlawful conduct. Police, courts, employers, and online services may each apply different rules, and public-sector workers g
- Getting harmful content removed from the internet
Harmful online content may be removable when it violates a platform’s rules, infringes privacy or copyright, exposes personal data, or is unlawful. Removal is not automatic: the result often depends on the content, who posted it, where it is hosted, and the law where you live.
- Intimate images shared without consent
If intimate images are shared without your consent, the conduct may violate criminal, privacy, harassment, data-protection, or civil laws, depending on where you live and what happened. Immediate threats, stalking, or physical danger make emergency services the first point of contact.
- Negative reviews: your rights as a reviewer
Reviewers generally have legal protection for truthful statements and genuine opinions about products or services, but not for knowingly false factual claims, threats, or unlawful disclosure of private information. The platform may still remove a review or suspend an account under its terms, even when the review is leg
- Online harassment and cyberstalking
Online harassment and cyberstalking generally involve repeated, threatening, abusive, or seriously distressing online conduct. Depending on the facts and location, the conduct may be a crime, support a protection order or civil claim, breach platform rules, or involve defamation, privacy, or misuse of personal data.
- Online marketplace sales gone wrong
An online marketplace sale can create several separate problems: a disputed payment or delivery, a misleading review, disclosure of personal information, harassment, or account suspension. The platform’s rules often control the immediate dispute, while consumer, privacy, defamation, harassment, and contract law may pro
- Someone posted lies about you online
A false online statement may be defamation if it is presented as fact, communicated to someone else, harms your reputation, and is not protected by a legal defence. The available responses depend on the statement, who published it, where the publisher and audience are located, and whether the post involves threats, pri
- Someone stole your content or photos
When someone copies your writing, artwork, video, or photographs without permission, the issue may involve copyright infringement, breach of a platform’s rules, privacy, or misuse of your identity. The available response depends on what was copied, who owns the rights, where the person and platform are located, and whe
- Using someone else's photos, music or video online
Using someone else’s photo, music, or video online can raise copyright, privacy, publicity, defamation, and platform-policy issues. The result often depends on who created the material, what permission was given, how you use it, and where you and the people shown are located.
- Your social media account was hacked or banned
If a hacked or banned social-media account involves an immediate threat of violence, stalking, or other danger, contact emergency services first. A hacked account is usually treated as an account-security and possible privacy incident, while a ban is usually governed by the platform’s terms, moderation rules, and appea