Social networking websites also allow anonymous attacks on the character of named persons or organizations. When an attorney working for Cisco, a computer networking business, anonymously posted comments on a blog about a patent attorney, a civil lawsuit alleging libel and slander was filed. The patent attorney had been on the opposing side of a patent lawsuit. The Cisco attorney allegedly accused the patent attorney, another attorney, and a federal clerk of conspiring to alter a document, and he claims to having made the blog post with the knowledge and approval of his supervisor. He ultimately admitted his true identity after someone traced his
Internet address and threatened to expose him (LaRowe, 2008).
The damage to the reputation of the recipient of such an attack can be long lasting if such posts are indexed and never deleted, yet the risk and the financial and reputation cost to the anonymous party making them is nearly nil. The results of such attacks could also be long lasting even if removed. Two students in a Quebec school deliberately provoked a teacher, secretly video taped the result of the teacher's encounter with one of them, and then posted the video on YouTube to embarrass the teacher. The young students were temporarily suspended and the video was removed YouTube. The teacher with 32 years of experience, however, was so embarrassed that he didn't immediately return work (CBC, 2006).