Negative comments written on Internet portals can be very damaging to both the person and the company. In this article we will deal with this important topic as well as offering advice by the best lawyers in Barcelona.
How to defend my honor and that of my company violated on the Internet?
Nowadays, the Internet is an essential tool to sell and advertise your company, but in turn, every business is exposed to adverse assessments and negative criticism in this world-class computer network. Sometimes negative comments by a user, anonymous or not, are concealed by a certain accusatory and offensive character and that violate, for all purposes, the right to honor. These are assessments that may affect aspects of personal life and which create a situation that is detrimental to the individual, both in his private and professional sphere.
These situations generate doubts when not knowing how to proceed before them, to this end, we will transfer this issue to the legal level and we will try to give an answer offering possible alternatives to be adopted in the event of an attack to our person and company in public spaces open to comments.
How should we act in the face of negative comments on the Internet?
The aforementioned negative comments in the form of an attack violate the right to honor, to personal and family privacy, which are enshrined as fundamental rights in the article 18th of the Spanish Constitution, recognizing at the same time, the right to freedom of expression and information in the article 20th. Constitutional jurisprudence establishes that, in the moment in which a person exercises his right of expression and information and this affects others, it should be analyzed if the subject's behavior is justified because it is within the permitted scope, since otherwise, the right to honor and privacy that protects the subject would be violated.
Our legal system through the article 16th of the Law on Information Society Services, tries to resolve these conflicts of the right of honor on the Internet, which have been increased alarmingly in recent years because of the transfer of advertising of the company and the exposition of it on the Internet. This article states that "the providers of an intermediation service will not be responsible for the information stored at the request of the addressee provided that:
- a) They do not have effective knowledge that the activity or information provided is unlawful or that it damages property or rights of a third party.
- b) If they have it, act with diligence to withdraw the data or make it impossible to access them.
With all this we make it clear that we can only activate the liability mechanism in the event that people responsible of the web where such offensive, defamatory and offensive comments have been made, have not been responsible for the elimination or censorship of the same.
Law on Information Society Services
Finally, add that the Law on Information Society Services recognizes that the service providers of the information society are subject to civil, personal and administrative liability established in general in the legal system. Thus, the administrator takes a decisive role in combating these attacks to honor, since it is the one that will guarantee the freedom of expression of the Internet users on its platform but at the same time the administrator will have to limit it so that the honor of third parties is not harmed. He must act diligently since he could end up prosecuted jointly with the author of comments and offensive evaluations.
How does the law protect us from negative comments on the Internet?
We would conclude therefore that the Law offers us protection over those negative and harmful opinions that violate the honor of our person or company, chasing the author of the comments and in turn, punishing tolerance towards them condemning the passivity of the administrators of the portals or web pages.
CATALÀ REINÓN LAWYERS || BARCELONA AND SABADELL
If you find yourself in a situation similar to the one dealt with in this article, do not hesitate to contact our legal counsel in Barcelona or Sabadell. In Català Reinón Abogados you can obtain specialized attention in this area and advise you as best as possible.
