"After a scandal, these companies sweep in like Olivia Pope, taking real parts of your biography and expanding them into articles and personal websites to push down the negative content. “If you manage your search results, you put your best foot forward,” says Metal Rabbit founder Bryce Tom. “Humans are just naturally lazy. The more content you put in a centralized location, the easier it is that they’ll see what you want them to see and not see what you don’t.” It’s worth noting these services are pretty expensive."
Zoe Schiffer, Vox (Sept 11, 2019), How to erase your personal information from the internet (it’s not impossible!)
"Usually, the cycle of a scandal follows a predictable formula. I asked Bryce Tom, founder of digital reputation management company Metal Rabbit, to explain the news cycle from a reputational standpoint. He described five stages. First, the news breaks: Other news organizations report the same story, and social media goes bananas. Then there are follow-up stories with fresh angles, then comes a public statement from the subject, followed by a slew of stories critiquing that, and then, in some cases, there are counterpoint stories defending the subject. After that, Tom explains, “if the story doesn’t have legs and there are no additional skeletons in the closet, the story usually dies down, and the reputation rebuilding begins.” Over time, the name loses its aura of disrepute.
Epstein’s case is different. “The most damaging factor is the sheer magnitude of Jeffrey Epstein’s notoriety,” Tom says. “Stories about theJeffrey Epstein will be talked about on Twitter for years to come, and Google search results will likely be swamped and monopolized for at least 10 years and potentially forever.”
As the misdeeds of more and more bad men are laid out for the public by the Ronan Farrows of the world (Ronan Farrow’s name-eses, if they’re out there, must feel inadequate all the time), more and more men will find their social media bombarded, their SEO doomed. If your name-esis goes bad, Tom suggests emphasizing your middle initial. He notes that Dr. Jeffrey S. Epstein has managed to top the other Jeffrey Epstein in Google search results when the “S” is introduced. Since Google search results are generally less useful for people with a famous name-esis, Tom recommends creating a website and including the URL on business cards and in email signatures, to share information directly. And if search results are really important to you, and your name-esis is actually famous, Tom suggests using your middle name."
Lauren Larson, GEN (Sept 23, 2019), When Jeffrey Epstein Is Your Name-esis
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