How To Remove Negative Information From The Internet [GUIDE 2024]

Learn how to remove negative information from the Internet and protect your privacy from outdated and defamatory content.

How can I remove negative information from the internet?

Have you googled your name or company name and come across a negative article, comment, or review?

More often, defamatory content from the past can leave a mark on your digital footprint and put your online reputation at risk.

Being on the first pages of Google with negative information can hurt your personal or corporate reputation.

Why? A negative comment causes people to lose trust in a product or service.

Review site BrandRated claims that 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase, and 58% would pay more for products from a well-reviewed brand.

Therefore, knowing how to remove negative information from the internet is a priority.

To achieve this, there are different options, let’s start.

How to remove negative information from Google searches?

If you discover that your name or company has harmful pages on Google search results and you are unsure what to do, we recommend the most straightforward solution: delete them. 

We can work on two types of content: 

• Removing property pages: in such cases, we mainly refer to social networking sites.

Negative comments or reviews can be on Google’s first pages. Thus, you have two options: 

Provide professional responses or delete them.

• Removing someone else’s web pages: removing negative information in this way is very complicated as advanced legal and marketing expertise is required.

How to remove negative comments on Facebook?

Removing negative information from the internet also means having to deal with what is said on social networks.

Opinions, reviews, and other references to a person’s point of view are all essential for your reputation. 

There are two types of negative comments on Facebook: 

• Clients’ complaints or claims;
• Defamatory comments

If a customer complains, we urge that you respond to them professionally.

On the other hand, if malicious comments violate your right to honor, you must remove negative information from the internet immediately. 

You may proceed as follows: 

• Detect the toxic comment;
• Click on the three dots and select the option that better suits you or your company. 

You will select the most suitable method based on the goal you wish to achieve.

Remove comments on TikTok

Many people have been victims of cyberbullying in this social network, where negative comments quickly become viral.

Tik Tok on its User Guide page explains different ways to delete comments.

We explain how to delete more than one comment:

To do this, you must:

• Look for the video with the negative comment;
• Hold down the comment for two seconds;
• Choose the comments to delete.

Remove comments on Instagram

You can delete your comments and those of other people.

On its official Help Centre page, it gives you information on how to delete multiple comments simultaneously.

In this case, we explain how to delete a comment that someone else has written on your publication:

• Look for harmful content;
• Swipe left;
• You will see three options: the first to “pin” the comment, the second with an exclamation point to report, restrict, and block, and the third to delete.

Remove comments on YouTube

Google, on its YouTube Help page, tells you how to view, organize and delete comments.

In this case, we share the way to delete a comment that others post on your channel:

• To log in, go to the top right;
• Find the comment you want to delete;
• Click on the three points and choose the option you want.

How to remove negative content from a digital newspaper

If a media outlet has published negative information about you, we advise you to contact them.

Another option is to go to the person responsible for the website to request the deletion of said information.

To do that, Google offers you two options:

• Contact link: usually appears on the main page of the website;
• WHOIS protocol: go to the Google search engine and type: whois www.example.com.

Remove comments and reviews on TripAdvisor

There are countless forums in which you can come across negative reviews and want to remove them.

This platform can edit or remove reviews.

If you want to remove the comment that someone has made about your product or service, you should know that TripAdvisor requires a removal request:

• Enter your owner username and locate the comment;
• Click on the flag;

• You will receive an email with the confirmation of the claim;
• You send the corresponding evidence for removal;
• Take a screenshot with the comment and explain the reasons for your request.

Remove comments on Twitter

In this social network, the way to delete a tweet depends on the publication.

If it’s a comment from someone else on your profile:

• Locate the comment to delete;
• Click on the down arrow to display the menu and finally choose “hide reply”;

If it’s someone else’s post:

• You access the publication and click on the three points;
• Select “report tweet.”

Remove information and content on Telegram

Many have been affected by the negative information exchanged by Telegram.

We show you how to delete photos, videos, and messages:

• Enter the application;
• Click on settings and then on “data and storage”, “storage usage”, and finally “clear Telegram cache”.
• In this way, you will delete messages, images, etc. 

Remove negative information from Google Search Console

If you want to remove negative information from Google Search Console it is better for you to know that this requires a specific procedure:

• Sign in to Search Console with your Google account and enter your Domain or URL-prefix;

• On the right, you will see the “Temporary Removals” button;
• Then click on “Removals”;

• Select “New request”. 

Removing an article or a negative review is not easy. On the contrary, it can be slow and even unsuccessful.

Contacting pros like ReputationUP is unquestionably the best option. 

What should I do to avoid having my name appear on Google? 

Google is the most popular search engine on the planet. As a result, many consumers who try to inquire about a product or service base their decision on search results.

They will not purchase if they find negative articles or reviews.

If your business has negative reviews, you may lose prospects.

This is especially important when you know data like the Inc. report: it takes about 40 positive customer experiences to undo the damage of a single negative review.

Remember that everything passes through the web. HR recruiters, too, use social media as a critical source of information.

If you apply to work for a company and submit your CV, they will first search your name on Google and, of course, on your social media accounts.

They will be able to identify the type of person you are in everyday life.

71% use LinkedIn, followed by Facebook with 69% and Instagram in third place with 21%.

If you want to know what people say about you on the internet, google your name.

If your reputation has been harmed, the first step is to delete all existing accounts associated with your name:

• Social networks: remember that this is the primary source of personal information.

Look for networks used in the past that you do no longer access, such as MySpace. 

• Clear your information: unsubscribe from applications that maintain track of your banking and personal information. 
• Email: because people could contact you via email, delete your email accounts. 

How to remove obsolete content from google?

Let us begin with the concept of obsolete.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as: 

“Not in use anymore, having been replaced by something newer or better or more fashionable.” 

If it is irrelevant or has no public value, each of us has the right to remove outdated content from search engines.

You can ask search engines to delete links and pages showing outdated information that affects the applicant’s image.

Following European privacy regulations, Google received over 435,952 requests for URL removal, only from the UK, according to Google Transparency Report.

Each platform has its own method for removing obsolete content. 

In this article, we will explain Google’s procedure. 

• Log in to your Google account;
• Click on “personal info” in  the left menu;
• You can modify each option and even choose who can see it;

Then:

• Click on “data and privacy”;
• On the right side and select “delete a Google service”. 

It is quick and straightforward since the information is about you: you are the account owner.

But what if someone else uncovers negative articles about you? 

We will explain how to do this for free, but please keep in mind that it is a lengthy process and with no guarantees: 

• Log in to your Google account, select “data and privacy,” click on “my activity”;

• Once you enter, click on “delete activity by” on the left and choose the option that suits you best.

The law has reiterated the importance of the Right to be Forgotten, which allows people to remove outdated and irrelevant content.

ReputationUP protects your brand’s reputation from haters with a protection tool that detects and removes any negative online information in real-time.

Exercise the Right to be Forgotten to remove negative information

You might be wondering: how do I delete my online presence or remove a URL from Google? 

To respond, you should be aware that the law protects you from outdated and defamatory news.

Let’s start by explaining the concept of the Right to be Forgotten.

This legal protection allows you to safeguard your reputation by removing outdated and irrelevant data.

Removal requests by category are miscellaneous (53.6%), news (18.8%) and directory (12.6%), according to Google Transparency Report.

The EU regulatin 2016/679 states that:

“The protection of natural persons in relation to the processing of personal data is a fundamental right.” 

To comply with this law, professionals such as ReputationUP can help you exercise your Right to be Forgotten by removing outdated content.

You can avoid such a long and almost impossible process by enlisting the help of experts.

Remove online defamatory content

Let’s start with the term “defamation”. 

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it means: 

“The action of damaging the reputation of a person or group by saying or writing bad things about them that are not true.”

Thus, disclosing defamatory information on the internet may be considered a criminal offense.

If defamatory content on the internet harms your reputation, you have a solution.

We recommend contacting negative link removal experts as a first step.

However, if you do it yourself, the process could take years before you receive a response.

Our multicultural team is made up of professionals from 26 different countries who work to manage reputational crisis.

With ReputationUP, you can launch a much faster and more effective process based on strong corporate values ​​and ethical principles. 

To exercise the Right to be Forgotten on Google, enter this link and follow the instructions. 

Although it is part of the GDPR and has been in effect since 2016, implementing the Right to be Forgotten is difficult.

Google takes a lengthy time to investigate de-indexing and removal requests. Furthermore, the outcomes are almost always negative.

As a result, if you are looking for the most appropriate and quick solution to assert your right in real-time, you should contact a specialized company like ReputationUP.

Conclusions 

This guide explains removing negative information from the Internet and protecting your privacy from outdated and defamatory content.

Therefore, the conclusions that we can draw are: 

• The Right to Be forgotten is the legal protection that allows you to protect your reputation by erasing outdated and irrelevant information;
• Opinions and reviews are essential for your reputation;
• 67.7% of consumers won’t buy if they find four negative reviews; 
• You can ask search engines to delete links and pages showing outdated information that affects the applicant’s image;
• The first thing you should do is delete all the accounts associated with your name, social networks, apps, email, etc.
• The law has reiterated the importance of the Right to be Forgotten, which allows people to remove outdated and defamatory content. 

Since it is a complicated process that requires a long waiting time, it is always better to refer to specialized companies.

ReputationUP is a global company with experts of online reputation management and defamatory content removal.

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