I was threatened to be sued. Here’s what i learned

Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 12:54 pm

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I shared a blog post two months back about a social media marketing company. Well said company was upset with me and my post. Last Friday I was sent a simple email demanding that my post be removed from my website. They also threatened to sue me if it wasn’t removed within 24 hours.

What happened

Here’s the think Yes bloggers can be sued (I’ll get to that in a bit). Now do I feel my post was offensive in any way no. I felt it was a standard informative post. I’ve shared other similar posts with all of you about social media marketing sites and no other company has complained.

To be honest I figured the company was bluffing. Most sites send out a cease and desist letter or other form of communication. This company didn’t. They just basically sent an angry email demanding I remove my post. By the way it was Friday evening after usual business hours so I didn’t worry about it much.

On Monday (8/24/2020) I had another email from the marketing company. This company seems to promote Instagram accounts for thousands of dollars.

I had a back and forth with the company and it turned ugly. I had asked if they could please show or prove to me that their company works well for small non-famous Instagram accounts. Well, the response I got wasn’t what i expected. It was rather angry. The responder claimed that they didn’t have to “prove” a thing to me. So again that sort of got me wondering if the site is even legit.

Most sites I would think would say our lawyers will contact you and not keep the email chain going. But this person did. When it was all said and done the company claimed I had lost than 500 thousand dollars in sales. I highly doubt that’s true. Let’s face it in these uncertain times I doubt many people have $1,300 to nearly $4,500 to pay for Instagram promotion. I may be wrong but I’m thinking of it from my own personal small blog/blogger standpoint.

The company also claimed that people were forwarding my blogs link to them when asking about their services. Again I can’t state that was true or not. But it still seemed like bullying and intimidation to me.

I figured to err on the side of caution and delete my post. But what I found odd was when I did some digging I couldn’t find anything about the brand besides my post. I couldn’t even find them on sites that allow consumers to leave site reviews or complaints. So to me that raised another red flag. I still think they may have bullied others into removing anything about them.

I also found it funny that not 3 hours after I deleted my post I had the same company send me another sales email. It was sent directly using my Instagram email info. So for a company that disliked me so much why on earth would they think i’d want to use their services.

Here’s what i learned

As I mentioned before Yes bloggers can be sued. Some lawsuits may vary. Most I found while searching Google were for copy right issues or plagiarism. Others may might be sued for other reason.

I also found out that each state may be different when it comes to bloggers and their rights. So you will need to check with your own state. I did find an interesting resource to share.

What you can do if your faced with a similar situation

You can reach out to the person requesting the content removal and ask why. You can also ask other questions if you see they are fitting to the situation. I asked several and as I said the emails just became more intimidating.

You can also reach out to someone who has legal knowledge and ask if you are violating any laws against a company, brand or person asking for the content removal. If push comes to shove consult a lawyer.

Again this is the first time I’ve faced this so I’m not very well versed but knew those were my options.

If you feel that you have a case to fight go ahead.

Why I removed my post

I caved and removed my post because quite frankly with the way 2020 has been going i wouldn’t put it past this company to try and sue me. I highly doubt i cost them that outrageous figure in sales. I also think they were mad that my post was in the top 5 in Google Search as well. Again it’s not my fault I was the only person who shared about them.

I also don’t have anything of value for them to sue me for aside from debt. So if they wanted that they could have it.

I still think it was a scare tactic because in the hours leading up to the email chain the send just kept saying they were going to contact their lawyers. You’d thought they would have if they were so offended with my post.

Resources

I did find an interesting resource when I was looking into bloggers rights. Again every state is different. As a blogger you do have rights but they may vary in every situation and circumstance.

I did find The Electronic Frontier Foundation when I was searching. They have some useful info and resources.

This post deals with legal issues and blogging

https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal

You can also check with your area’s Small Business Association if your blog is your business. They may offer some info as well.

You may also want to reach out to any groups you may be apart of to see if anyone can suggest any advice as well.

I hope you don’t have to deal with what i did but i also hope this post was informative.