The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
The Takedown Requests Just Keep on Coming
As I wrote Oct. 28,
Kelly Hyman is a lawyer, frequent FoxNews.com contributor, and a media and Twitter commentator in this year's presidential campaign. She had also (in Hyman v. Daoud) sued her father, a disgraced former Miami Beach mayor, over a real estate transaction. And, for several years, there have been attempts to vanish from the Internet various materials related to that dispute—including attempts to vanish news stories about it, including my own articles.
On Oct. 17, I got an e-mail related to the latest such attempt: …
In that post, I noted that the then-latest attempt was seemingly backed by a Mar. 13, 2024 court order that ordered the removal of various items, including my articles. But, as I noted later on Oct. 28, the court vacated that Mar. 13 order (in response to Marc Randazza's motion on my behalf), at least as applied to anyone other than Daoud, the defendant in that case.
Well, Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, Google was sent two [UPDATE: three] deindexing requests that dealt with articles related to Hyman v. Daoud. Both attached the Mar. 13 order, which had been largely vacated by then, as a supporting document, without noting the Oct. 28 vacating order. One deindexing request targeted 40 articles, including several of mine, as well as several from the Miami Herald, CBS News, and more:
https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/24/an-odd-response-from-one-of-the-lawyers-in-thekelly-hyman-v-alex-daoud-case/
https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/24/overbroad-injunction-used-to-try-to-vanish-articlesabout-daughters-property-lawsuit-against-father/
https://reason.com/volokh/2023/12/14/attempt-to-vanish-my-article-about-attempt-tovanish-my-article-about-attempt-to-vanish-other-articles/
https://reason.com/volokh/2023/12/14/attempt-to-vanish-my-article-about-attempt-tovanish-my-article-about-attempt-to-vanish-other-articles/Attempt
https://reason.com/volokh/2023/12/14/attempt-to-vanish-my-article-about-attempt-tovanish-my-article-about-attempt-to-vanish-other-articles/printer/Another Attempt to Vanish My Posts About Kelly Hyman v. Alex Daoud—Seemingly Backed by Court Order
https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/HymanvDaoud.pdf …
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/notorious-father-faces-eviction-by-daughter/ …
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2672285/Disgraced-former-Miami-Beach-mayorcourt-battle-daughter-million-dollar-home.html …
https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/almID/1202676995842/
https://www.leagle.com/decision/inadvflco180130001335
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article1972934.html …
The other deindexing request targeted 10 of those pages, including three of mine. [UPDATE: There was also a third deindexing request, which targeted 8 of those pages, including three of mine; it was also submitted Dec. 4, but was just posted on Lumen today, Dec. 11.] As best I can tell, Google didn't act on either request. (An earlier request, sent directly to CBS, may have gotten the local CBS affiliate to remove its article on the matter; I'm trying to look into that.) Certainly all the attempts to deindex my articles about the matter have failed to get those articles hidden or removed. Indeed, they have just led to further articles about the deindexing attempts.
