By Richart Ruddie
Each and every day, thousands of Twitter users have their accounts hacked. The hacker, who is often someone with a grievance against the account owner, will assume the identity of the owner. From there, the hacker will begin posting defamatory or false remarks, usually as a means of drawing controversy towards the owner. Usually, the real-life consequences of such hacks are rather small, but when a professional athlete with millions of followers gets hacked, the results can be catastrophic.
Unfortunately, the law lags behind technology, making it very difficult to convict an account hacker of a prosecutable crime, especially if the transfer of monetary sums were not involved. And although no one would be surprised if government passed a law criminalizing this and other relatable offenses, that time is still a ways off.
Identity theft, however, is very illegal, and if proved in a court of law, can lead to a substantial jail sentence. Unfortunately, court cases can be long and drawn out, and often attract more negative media attention than they’re worth. For this reason, most celebrities victimized by a hacker never pursue legal recourse, preferring to just put the unfortunate scenario behind them.
Consider the Manti Te’o case. Having already suffered a great deal of humiliation at the hands of a long-time acquaintance, Te’o would certainly be within his right to pursue legal recourse. However, by doing so, he would invite a ton of attention, most of it from people who believe he was either in on the hoax or those who can’t believe someone could be so naïve. Even if justice was served, his embarrassing situation would remain atop headlines for months to come.
Alternatively, professional athletes who have had their online identity compromised could turn to reputation management. By posting positive, truthful remarks, online reputation management (ORM) firms seek to rectify the damage done as a result of a personal vendetta, or in the case of Manti Te’o, a fictional love interest. And since star athletes are typically judged more by what they’ve done recently than what they’ve accomplished over the course of their career, a strong ORM firm will replace negative headlines with ones that are current, positive, and that rank high on search engines such as Google.
Profile Defenders is the leading online reputation management company that specializes in suppressing unwanted press and material on the internet for professional athletes, sports stars, and agents. To learn more call 202-709-6571.
