Defamation and Breach of Privacy
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Hi, I have a question concerning a blog that was written by someone I know. The blog is entitled ‘only where you walk have you been’. Myself and a friend traveled with the author of the blog on a trip in South Africa. The author repeatedly drove very poorly and was extremely irritating. He also smoked pot and drove, further increasing his irrational behaviour driving. He caused some minor damage to our car rental, and thus knowing that he would expect me and my friend to pay for most of the damages to the car we decided to leave him in Kruger National Park. We both agree we had enough reasons to up and leave. As retaliation for us leaving the author decided to put a post on his blog which is titled with both our names followed by the word thieves. The article has both our contact info, including my phone number, our hometowns, and our emails. The article goes onto describe us as thieves and completely tries to defame our character, as well as the character of my parents with whom the author has never met. I was wondering if it is possible for word press to take down this article as it clearly seeks to defame myself, my friend and my parents on false grounds, and also breaches privacy laws? Not to mention the article is downright rude, unethical and insulting. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Cheers and Thanks
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
Complaints like this one are not dealt with here on the public support forums. Only Terms of Service Staff have authority in such cases and their authority applies to blogs hosted by WordPress.COM, not to any others.
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/report-blogs/Court orders: Cases of defamation and impersonation require a court order before we can take action. Official, signed court orders can be emailed to
(email visible only to moderators and staff).
Our role is to direct those who post to the relevant support docs like http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/ and request that Support Staff close the thread, as only Terms of Service Staff have authority in these cases.
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Hi, I tried to use your abuse form, but it did not recognize the authors web page, even though it was clearly run through WordPress. I think this could be due to him having a premium word press account. Is there anyway of doing an abuse form for a premium account?
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Hi,
I would have filed a complaint through the abuse form, but I was unable to do so since it would not recognize the url code even though in his blog page it is clear that the blog is run through word press. I think this may be due to him being on a premium version of word press. Is it possible for me to run a complaint through an abuse form that is meant for premium blogs?Sent from my iPhone
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even though it was clearly run through WordPress
Hi @markreadsblog,
Not every site that uses WordPress is hosted here at WordPress.com.
People can download WordPress (the open source software) from WordPress.org, then run it on any server they like – WordPress.com/Automattic has no control over the content of these self-hosted sites.
If the form says that the site isn’t hosted at WordPress.com, then you’ll need to contact the company that is actually it.
Please try entering the url of the offending site into the field at http://www.whoishostingthis.com/
That should tell you the name of the company that’s hosting the site, you can then try contacting them.
I hope this helps :)
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*then you’ll need to contact the company that is actually hosting it.
Apologies for the typo.
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Hi there,
As our volunteers pointed out, we can only take action against sites hosted on WordPress.com’s servers, and then only if a) that site is found to have violated our terms of service, or b) you provide a valid court order as explained here:
We cannot help with this matter via the forums any further than providing you with the information already in this thread, so I am now closing this thread to further replies. We do not deal with terms of service matters in the public support forums.
- The topic ‘Defamation and Breach of Privacy’ is closed to new replies.
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