Online Reputation
Public smears have been around for centuries. But they are far more effective in the internet age, gliding across platforms that are loath to crack down.
When A Stranger Decides To Destroy Your Life
“Monika Glennon has lived in Huntsville, Alabama, for the last 12 years. Other than a strong Polish accent, she fits a certain stereotype of the All-American life. She’s blonde. Her husband is a veteran Marine. Her two children, a boy and a girl, joined the military as adults. She sells houses—she’s a real estate agent at Re/Max—helping others realize their own American dream.
But in September 2015, she was suddenly plunged into an American nightmare.”
I pitched this story to one of my favorite podcasts, Criminal, and it became the episode Homewrecker.
A Vast Web of Vengeance
“Guy Babcock vividly remembers the chilly Saturday evening when he discovered the stain on his family. It was September 2018. He, his wife and their young son had just returned to their home in Beckley, an English village outside of Oxford. Mr. Babcock still had his coat on when he got a frantic call from his father.
‘I don’t want to upset you, but there is some bad stuff on the internet,’ Mr. Babcock recalled his father saying. Someone, somewhere, had written terrible things online about Guy Babcock.”
The Slander Industry
“I wanted to slander someone. My colleague Kashmir Hill and I were trying to learn who is responsible for — and profiting from — the growing ecosystem of websites whose primary purpose is destroying reputations.
So I wrote a nasty post. About myself.
Then we watched as a constellation of sites duplicated my creation. To get slander removed, many people hire a “reputation management” company. In my case, it was going to cost roughly $20,000.
We soon discovered a secret, hidden behind a smokescreen of fake companies and false identities. The people facilitating slander and the self-proclaimed good guys who help remove it are often one and the same.
The New York Times, April 2021
This series led Google to make changes to its search algorithm to help serial slander victims.