Celebrities often complain about damaging stories and negative comments about them on the Internet.
Now the rich are hiring companies to influence what comes up on a Google search.
Chris Dinota, CEO and founder of Solvera Group, said, “Suppression is the traditional method that reputation companies use, they’ll typically try to push the information down on a Google search result page by flooding in new content. We work with Google to de-index the link,” removing it from search results.
His clients include athletes, musicians, movie moguls and international corporations.
With fees starting at $50,000, only a few can afford it.
Dinota said of his client requests, “There are groups of Internet extortionists. They seek out large companies and they destroy the names of the principals in anticipation of a blackmail fee. The individuals offer to take the blog down for $1 million.”
The European Court of Justice recently ruled EU citizens have the right to ask Google to remove offending information, a move that Dinota hopes will spark a debate in the US.
