Can wordpress do anything about someone impersonating you using wordpress?

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  greatness92 · Member · Jun 5, 2014 at 3:18 am

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  Someone stole a photo of my friend and has been using it to impersonate him online and post content that does not represent my friend’s views at all. Can WordPress do anything about this?

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  auxclass · Member · Jun 5, 2014 at 4:15 am

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  This should help

  Terms of service

  http://en.wordpress.com/tos/
  http://wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/suspended-blogs/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/affiliate-links/

  Abuse – Freedom of Speech:

  http://en.wordpress.com/freedom-of-speech/
  http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/
  http://en.wordpress.com/complaints/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/disputes/

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  raincoaster · Member · Jun 5, 2014 at 5:03 am

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  Ahem. Skip all of that for today and have your friend (not you) go to the police. Impersonating a particular, real person online is a felony.

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  raincoaster · Member · Jun 5, 2014 at 5:03 am

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  Then your friend can do the other stuff tomorrow.

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  greatness92 · Member · Jun 6, 2014 at 2:41 am

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  auxclass

  do I need to give DMCA ALL of my personal information including address in order to have the blog removed?

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  jeremeylduvall · Member · Jun 6, 2014 at 8:31 pm

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  Hi @DreamingYetLiving,

  Can you post a link to the blog in question?

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  greatness92 · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 1:53 am

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  Jeremy,

  I am sorry for bumping this thread and replying so late, I have been sick the past 2 days. Due to the troll in question being quite dedicated and crafty I decided to email you the blog directly to avoid the risk. I know this is not how the matter should be handled on most occasions but on this one the troll is quite a dedicated individual and we are certain if he still posts. The blog has not been updated for a while now but he did steal my friend’s picture and impersonated him in an attempt to slander him.

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  greatness92 · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 1:54 am

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  if posting the blog link on here is indeed mandatory then I will do so but I email you the link through your site. I am sorry I had to go through such a bizarre measure but in my years of dealing with internet trolls, this one in particular seems to take it way too far than the others.

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  raincoaster · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 1:55 am

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  Staff don’t ask for things if they don’t need them.

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  jeremeylduvall · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 4:41 pm

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  Hi,

  I received the email regarding the blog. First, I would attempt to contact the blogger directly and ask them to remove the post in question. If that does not work, you will need to fill out the information for a DMCA notice here as mentioned below:

  http://automattic.com/dmca-notice/

  All information is required.

  Let me know if you need anything else!

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  greatness92 · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 5:02 pm

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  Jeremey

  I did that but as you can see the blog has been inactive for a while now.

  Second, the DMCA notice would require my friend to give away all of his personal information like name and address which he feels very uncomfortable doing, think you might be able to understand that to an extent.

  Since you are a staff member, isn’t there something you can do to take the blog down since it is an obvious impersonation along with defamation and slander?

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  timethief · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 5:05 pm

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  Since you are a staff member, isn’t there something you can do to take the blog down since it is an obvious impersonation along with defamation and slander?

  Surely you must comprehend that in order to address or rectify any situation of impersonation the party being impersonated must act. There is no such thing as another party acting on the behalf on any adult.

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  timethief · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 5:08 pm

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  Let me add to that please. There is no such thing as another party acting on the behalf on any adult in any legal matter of any kind, unless the adult is mentally incompetent and has assigned power of attorney to another competent adult.

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  jeremeylduvall · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 9:34 pm

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  You will need to submit a DMCA notice, filling out all fields, in order for action to potentially be taken. Note, submitting a DMCA request does not guarantee that the content will be taken down.

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  greatness92 · Member · Jun 10, 2014 at 12:20 am

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  Thanks for trying to help, as you could see by the link it was clearly impersonation and defamation of character so I would there would be a way WordPress can take the entire blog down given that it has not been updated for a long time but still shows up on google. With DMCA it is going to require all personal information which in the opinion of my friend is just asking for way too much (address, real name, etc.).

  Will do what needs to be done but wish there was an alternative way to take it down.

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  raincoaster · Member · Jun 10, 2014 at 5:01 am

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  There is. You can get a court order.

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  jeremeylduvall · Member · Jun 10, 2014 at 4:26 pm

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  With DMCA it is going to require all personal information which in the opinion of my friend is just asking for way too much (address, real name, etc.)

  This information is required in order to validate that the blog in question is, in fact, impersonating your friend. Thank you for submitting the DMCA notice. We’ll review the request and take further action if necessary!