One of the internet’s most obvious virtues is its revolutionary and unprecedented ability to rapidly disseminate information.

To quote Shakespeare, “virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied” and in the wrong hands, the internet is capable of causing great harm. Advances in cybertechnology, most notably the “blog,” now allow virtually anyone—regardless of motives or veracity of information—to issue streams of invective about a person or company, or to falsely quote a named individual.

Countless unsuspecting senior-level professionals have already fallen victim to vicious online campaigns penned by disenchanted co-workers, former clients, and even entirely unassociated individuals who post their grievances on online business forums. Even more harmful (and disturbing) are the purely malicious attacks, such as the one launched at Dr. Sam Graham, M.D., former head of Emory School of Medicine’s Urology Department. A Yahoo! message board posting accused him of taking a kick-back from Urocor, a pathology services company, and alleged that this scandal had prompted Graham’s resignation from Emory. Both charges were proven to be false. In fact, the posting’s author had never met Graham and was trying to increase business for his own competing laboratory by defaming Urocor. Dr. Graham filed and won a lawsuit against the author. Unfortunately, his success is rare among internet-based libel cases.

Essentially, anyone with rudimentary computer skills can publish cyber-slander (and get away with it) if they a) use false names/addresses and b) utilize a forum/website that is based off-shore, and the search engines do the rest. Under these circumstances, the applicability of U.S. libel laws is decidedly muddled. According to a recent Chicago Tribune article (“A Whole Lotta Dissing Going Down On the Web”, March 12, 2006), “there’s little you can do about it.” (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0603120481mar12,1,1771454.story?ctrack=1&cset=true)

The effects of this trend can be especially harmful for the job-seeking professional, where one slanderous remark on the internet can create an entirely unfounded negative image with the potential to severely damage a job search campaign.

What defense, then, does the transitioning professional have against “cybersmear”? Until a more definitive verdict is reached on internet libel liability, a professional’s best defense is a solid personal network of associates and colleagues who can be used as positive references and referrals. Despite the internet’s obvious influence on modern-day business communications, over 80% of all executive-level jobs are secured via networking, and that percentage is on the increase. The hazard of potential cyberslander therefore underscores the importance of building a solid professional network.

I’ll leave my final comment in the capable hands of Walter Cronkite (no stranger to the media), who said “I am dumfounded that there hasn’t been a crackdown with the libel and slander laws on some of these would-be writers and reporters on the Internet.”

About the Author :

John Shaffer is the CEO of HiProFile (http://www.hpfjobs.com), a Boston-based executive placement firm. Since its inception in early 2002, HiProFile has established relationships with organizations throughout New England who need to fill positions at the $100K – $400K base salary level.

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