Earlier this week, I received an e-mail titled “Request for news de-indexing.” It stated:
“I’m ___ from __ Consulting, online web reputation and legal agency based in ___. I am sending this email to kindly ask for your cooperation. Several years ago, your newspaper reported news about one of our clients ___. Please note the link for your convenience: [Link]. We would like to point out that [individual], after more than __ years, has completely served his sentence, has discharged all debts … and has never had any legal issues. Furthermore, [individual] has definitively left the company mentioned in the articles. This is why our client would like to appeal to the right to be forgotten. We know that you don’t have any legal obligation at all, but we would kindly ask your esteemed editorial staff to grant us the removal or at least de-indexing of this news, to preserve online reputation and encourage our client social reintegration. If you won’t grant this professional courtesy, we ask you to agree at least replacement of the name with the bullet (initials), to enhance the rehabilitation of our client. Thanking you in advance for your kind collaboration, we remain at your disposal for any type of information or detail.”
The “esteemed editorial staff” of this site (that would be me), thought about it and declined the invitation to erase truthful, accurate, fact-based information from FCPA Professor.
The interesting thing is, this is certainly not the first time I have received a request of this type.
My best estimate is that I have received approximately ten similar requests over the years.
Like this week’s e-mail, there is never any allegation or suggestion that the information published on FCPA Professor was inaccurate.
There is simply a request to remove this information from a comprehensive, thirteen years and running, FCPA information source.
Sorry not going to do it.
However, with this week’s instance (similar to certain other instances), I did offer the individual an opportunity to draft a guest post for publication on FCPA Professor about lessons learned, advice for others, etc. So far (similar to prior instances), no response.
The most interesting “please remove my name from your website” request I got several years ago was from a convicted FCPA felon who was trying to rehabilitate himself. Funny thing is, he frequently reminds people, to this day, in his frequent social media posts that he is a convicted FCPA felon (as if that makes him qualified to opine on FCPA – or any other – issues). This person, didn’t want to be “forgotten,” this person just wanted to control the narrative.
In short, thanks for reading FCPA Professor. The most comprehensive, free, FCPA information source available.
