Reputation.com was recently mentioned in a Reader’s Digest article about online slander, cyber bullying and online gossip. The article discusses ways to fight back against the emerging trend of internet abuse amid the rising popularity of gossip sites.

Even more disgusting is how common stories like this have become. Cyberbullying of younger children, usually by other kids, is a familiar story; less so is the online harassment of college students and adults. The cowards who cloak themselves in digital anonymity to smear others are not only hurting their victims but also damaging the sense of trust important to us all, online and off. The effects can range from mere embarrassment to lost jobs to emotional trauma. Meanwhile, the creeps sitting at their keyboards are rarely held to account.

Online harassment is as old as the Web itself. But now it’s being actively encouraged by websites that profit from sourceless vitriol. Perhaps the main offender is JuicyCampus, whose home page promises that “posts are totally, 100 percent anonymous.” The website has become a clearinghouse for abuse, ranging from cruel insults and vicious rumors to the outing of gay and lesbian students and the harassment of racial and ethnic groups. How would you like to be the UCLA student who was recently branded “a stinky, ugly Jew … the most hated slut on campus”? JuicyCampus’s frequently-asked-questions page—in addition to directing users to “IP cloaking” software to further mask their digital footprint—responds to “I’m offended!” with a flip “Sorry. Also, that’s not a question.”

The piece correctly points to the CDA that means traditional protections against slander, defamation and libel are no where to be found online:

Smear someone in a traditional media outlet, like a newspaper or a talk show, and you can end up in court. But the law that Congress passed in 1996 establishing basic Internet regulations prevents website hosts from being held responsible for what outsiders post on their sites. In other words, the law says that the kind of defamation that would get the New York Times sued is fair game on JuicyCampus.

Daniel Solove, an internet reputation expert is also profiled in the well written piece.

Sure, gossip is an ugly fact of life. But the Internet has changed its impact. Gossip that used to be contained within a relatively narrow social world is now broadcast to a wider audience less able to assess its credibility, says Daniel Solove, a professor of law at George Washington University and the author of The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet. And even a completely false allegation can last forever online. “Now we have a kind of permanent digital scarlet letter,” says Solove.

We prize our right to free speech, but, experts like Solove say, we need to do more to protect another right: privacy.

Reputation.com is a strong advocate of free and responsible speech and encourages individuals who suffer from internet defamation to take steps to control their online identity.