They use fake accounts, get grouped by topics of interest, choose hours of high traffic, assign hashtags to be identifiable, and attack. Companies, public figures, and some State entities are their favorite targets. Well, the phenomenon of smear campaigns on social media through fake accounts, has become more relevant every day because it is an effective, easy, and economical strategy to build massive speeches that, through repetition seem to become true, thus achieving their purpose of discrediting, censoring and destabilizing competitors of all kinds.
However, the frequency of these organized attacks and their capacity to violate the rights of victims raises the question of what to do to avoid their negative effects. In this article, we will analyze this phenomenon in light of the commission of possible crimes and evaluate if reporting these criminal behaviors can be an efficient measure to protect the prestige of a company or an individual.
How do these attacks occur?
These smear campaigns are a digital phenomenon where fake accounts and users are created on social networks to make a massive fake statement on an issue. The most common platform of its use is "X" (formerly Twitter) due to its high level of engagement. In some cases, those campaigns are driven by bots, which are software that performs a series of predetermined, repetitive, and automated tasks, such as reposting publications with unfavorable opinions of users regarding a specific topic through fake accounts on social media. As so, they seek to manipulate public opinion through the wide spreading of false information, generating any kind of negative consequences, mainly to discredit the victim, affecting his honor and good name.
An example of this is the increasing campaigns to discredit the news media. Most of these cases arise as a response to the publication of journalistic investigations against the State, individuals, or companies. Specifically, these attacks are based on the replication of messages through false accounts that question the credibility of such news media because of the business of their leaders and owners, affecting the moral integrity, honor, and good name of both companies and their workers.
What crime could be typified in this conduct?
Well, these massive and organized attacks can constitute the crimes of libel, slander, and even harassment. We would be facing a case of libel when those messages spread by social media contain specific dishonorable allegations against the victim; slander when such allegations refer to the commission of a crime by the subject being discredited; and harassment when the posts promote acts aimed to cause physical or any kind of harm.
In this kind of crime, the victim can be both an individual or a legal entity, since the Constitutional Court has stated that companies are also entitled to honor and a good name since their prestige is their main asset in the market.
What to do when you are a victim of these attacks?
Considering that this phenomenon of massive attacks on social networks involves the commission of a crime, in addition to any private claims that you may arise, initiating a criminal complaint might be an ideal way to defend your constitutional rights.
First, the filing of a criminal complaint is an opportunity to send a clear and forceful message to society to question and oppose to messages with false content or whose only purpose is to discredit the company or the work of an individual. In this way, there is an affirmative act to protect the honor and good name of those affected. Therefore, by warning the authorities of the commission of a crime, you question and challenge the alleged truthfulness of the information and so it is a first step to restore the social imaginary on the specific subject.
Secondly, considering that these types of attacks are usually carried out from fake accounts, individualizing each of them can be very difficult for the prosecutor in charge. However, given the high frequency, and effectiveness in discrediting and violating the rights of a company or an individual, reporting this type of behavior can increase the interest of the State to carry out complex investigations to identify and punish those responsible.
Finally, as there might be a criminal behavior, filing a criminal complaint is not only a suitable mechanism to counteract the harmful effects of these campaigns, but it also fulfills any duty regarding the obligation to report a crime. Therefore, filing a complaint constitutes an act of due diligence.
However, it is always advisable to have legal advice before filing a criminal complaint to understand all its pros and cons. Anyhow there are some scenarios in which dishonorable allegations are protected by freedom of speech and cannot be understood as a crime. For example, an opinion regarding the service of a company in general terms might not be considered a criminal act since it does not necessarily refer to a specific act that can be proven. Thus, even if a statement is not true, it does not necessarily mean the commission of a crime.
Likewise, given the complexity of identifying those responsible for these cyber acts, many times the State does not carry out sufficient investigative actions to locate them. However, this lack of interest can be prevented through the hiring of private investigators (PI) by the complainant. As a con PIs might be quite expensive, but it can really help to promote the investigation with the prosecutor so that an indictment is faster to achieve.
Prior legal advice can also prevent scenarios of re-victimization. In cases of trashing campaigns against companies, legal advice should also focus on considering the risks related to reactivating public debates that might turn out to be more harmful to the company’s good name. This is because as a trashing strategy offenders might distort facts to state that the filing of a criminal complaint is a measure to promote censorship scenarios.
In a conclusion, the trashing phenomenon on social media, is a relevant issue that might even have criminal consequences, as it might constitute offenses such as libel, slander, and harassment. Therefore, whoever is considered to be a victim of it should get legal advice and defend their rights through any suitable legal action, such as a criminal complaint.
