The popularity penalty
We all like to think that our words will find their way to the top of search engine results, but a french court has fined a blogger for being too popular in Google.
Caroline Doudet, is the unpaid author of the french fashion and literacy blog, Cultur'elle, which has about 3,000 readers. She wrote an entry about her unfavourable experience at a Bordeaux restaurant entitled "The place to avoid in Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino". In there she complained about poor service and a poor attitude on the part of the owner. The owner took exception to the article and sued her. At an emergency court hearing, at which Doudet did not have time to find legal representation, the judge ordered Doudet to pay 1500 Euro in damages plus 1000 Euro in costs, (about £2000 in total).
It might seem that this is an example of the legal system working as it should, protecting small businesses from the irresponsibility of bloggers, but in this case that's not the whole story.
Doudet stands by the accuracy of her story and says the restaurant doesn't dispute the facts, only the way she expressed them. The judge did not rule that the article was fabricated or inaccurate or malicious. The restaurateur agrees that Ms Doudet dined at the restaurant and concedes that there may have been some substance to her grievances by saying "Maybe there were some errors in the service. That happens sometimes in the middle of August". The problem with the article, as far as the restaurant was concerned, was "This article showed in the Google search results and did my business more and more harm, even though we have worked seven days a week for 15 years."
Perhaps the article was unfair, we cannot say, but it was the placement in Google which the judge focussed on. According to the court documents, this blog entry came up fourth in Google's results if you searched for the name of the restaurant. On the basis of its popularity in Google, the judge has imposed damages and costs, and also ordered that the title of the article be changed so that it was less prominent in search results. Yes, you read that correctly. The judge has not ordered that the article be rescinded, an apology issued, or corrections made, only that the author must use negative SEO to make it harder to find in a search engine. Doudet has now deleted the entire article and is unlikely to appeal due to the costs involved.
There are troubling aspects to this story. If the review had been glowingly positive, the business would have been more than happy to see this review appearing high in the Google search results, no matter how inaccurate it was. People regularly post unrealistically positive and bitterly negative reviews to establishments on sites like Yelp, and a quick search of Trip Advisor reveals it has plenty of pages headed "a place not to eat". These sites are probably read by far more people than Boudet's blog ever was.
24th July 2014
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