Google Can Remove Third Party Content – But Not For Libel?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Some of us already knew that Google would take the time to remove third party content from its index. But this seems to be news for WebProNews readers.

I read this article with real interest expecting to see something related to personally damaging material that might be construed as reputation damaging at least or libelous at the worst. Not so. It appears that Google may not really care if people are telling lies about you.

What are some reasons you can have third party content removed from Google?

• If it is spam
• If the site is selling links to for PageRank
• If the site is stealing your content
• If the site is involved in phishing or distributing malware
• If it contains your personal and private information such as SSN, credit card number, or bank account information
• If your name is associated with adult content and you aren’t in fact a porn star
• It contains an image of your handwritten signature
• The site owner has removed an image or blocked an image for vague reasons

Interestingly, libel or online reputation damaging information is nowhere included here. This might be because Google doesn’t want to be in a position of deciding just what is and isn’t reputation damaging. They want to play judge to your personal disputes (not search engine optimization or online reputation management related), but if it’s illegal, I’ll bet they’d remove it. You just might need a court order.