Clearly the people running these sites are true scumbags. However, the article doesn't mention that the only reason these sites making false claims have any value is because google directs traffic to them! If somebody slanders me on a site nobody reads why would I care? I only care if Google slanders me through their search results. That's what you're paying for to get the slander removed: removal from search results.
And yet nobody talks about the responsibility search engines have to prune obvious scams, viruses, and the like from their index. Google is not a neutral actor in this, it's Google's algorithm that's getting exploited, so Google has both a moral responsibility and the actual capability to fix this. Legal action against these slander sites is important too, but more of a secondary concern.
And yet nobody talks about the responsibility search engines have to prune obvious scams, viruses, and the like from their index. Google is not a neutral actor in this, it's Google's algorithm that's getting exploited, so Google has both a moral responsibility and the actual capability to fix this. Legal action against these slander sites is important too, but more of a secondary concern.