Through social media, individuals can have direct, unfettered access to brands and corporations.

Corporations may also use social media to promote their products directly to those same consumers. But sometimes, social media can provide individuals with a platform to antagonize or harass a company or that company’s employees.

Consider a cellphone manufacturer posting about a new phone design on Instagram or Twitter. Although the company may be hoping for engagement with the public about that new design, the company’s social media manager sees a number of posts from a single user accusing the company of infringing his patents in their new design. That user may even tag individual employees of the cell phone manufacturer, accusing those employees of stealing the user’s intellectual property.

The manufacturer disputes those allegations. Maybe the manufacturer is even aware of the user and knows that they have been making disparaging and unfounded comments about the manufacturer for years. When the manufacturer calls their lawyer and asks for advice, how should the lawyer proceed?

Although the client may be concerned (or probably even frustrated) about the impact of such comments, there are several issues to consider when advising a corporate client facing social media harassment.

Review the Terms of Use and Guidelines of the Platform

A first step is to review the terms of use and guidelines of the social media platform to identify whether any rules have been broken. If a commenter’s inflammatory posts violate the terms of use, the client company may be able to directly petition the social media platform for assistance.

For example, Instagram’s community guidelines provide that it will remove content that contains credible threats or hate speech, content that targets private individuals to degrade or shame them, personal information meant to blackmail or harass someone and repeated unwanted messages. The guidelines also prohibit misappropriation of intellectual property rights, which could be a remedy for a client who has concerns about their patents or the disclosure of confidential information.

Instagram users can report posts by clicking on the applicable button; non-users and users alike can also fill out a form to report problematic posts. Although this can be a remedy for addressing past misstatements, it may not prevent future harassment.

Is It Appropriate to Send a Cease-and-Desist or Initiate Litigation?

Sending a cease-and-desist letter to the user—if the user’s real-world identity is known—can be a precursor to any litigation or further action to enforce one’s rights.

When deciding to send a cease-and-desist letter it is important to consider whether the client is actually ready to undertake further action. In fact, there can be a risk of waiving or diluting rights if a company sends a cease-and-desist letter, with no intention of actually following through with legal action. Whether to proceed can also be a challenge if the real identity of the poster is not known.

Some situations may warrant seeking injunctive relief or other legal remedies. Are the posts interfering with your client’s business in a way that warrants further legal action? Is the client being defamed? In some circumstances, initiating a lawsuit may be justified as a way to address defamation or other harassment, especially if a cease-and-desist letter was ignored.

The success of such a suit can depend greatly on how the jurisdiction treats online speech (and can be challenging in many states), but some courts may be inclined to hold social media trolls accountable if there have been personal threats, infringement of intellectual property rights or defamation.

Determine Whether Law Enforcement Involvement Is Warranted

In instances where an online troll is harassing individual employees – by posting their personal information or harassing them—law enforcement intervention may be necessary. This is typically reserved for serious situations involving threats to personal behavior; annoying behavior is typically not enough.

It can also be difficult to identify the appropriate local law enforcement agency to handle a complaint of harassment (or the equivalent) when the parties are located in different states. But if the activity rises to the level of cyber-stalking or otherwise puts safety at risk, law enforcement may be able to assist in obtaining a restraining order.

Consider the Barbra Streisand Effect

Nearly 20 years ago, Barbra Streisand filed a lawsuit objecting to the fact that photographs were being taken of her private property in Malibu. The photographs had been taken for research purposes by scientists documenting coastal erosion in that area and were not otherwise publicly known or widely disseminated.

But the lawsuit drew a significant amount of attention to the photographs, causing them to be viewed by many more people than when they were first taken.

This phenomenon—that taking public action in an effort to minimize the effect of a certain event may actually serve to draw attention to it—is now known as the Barbra Streisand Effect, as a result of that lawsuit.

A similar caution exists for corporate clients who are concerned about social media trolls interfering with their businesses. In some instances, taking action against a lone poster may actually serve to shine a spotlight on the harassment, disseminating the allegations more publicly.

Then the troubling posts could be viewed by thousands (or even millions) of people, who otherwise would never have known about, or might have dismissed, the online harassment from a random account. Attention from news outlets could also create a false implication that the social media posts are credible.

Lawyers dealing with clients facing social media harassment may consider whether an aggressive or public response could unnecessarily amplify the situation. Is the action from the company worth the expense or attention? Will responding add fuel to the fire? Some companies in this situation will document the abuse in case it continues, but will otherwise decide not to feed the trolls.

Being aware of these options can help lawyers navigate the murky waters in dealing with targeted harassment of a corporate client.