Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel

A summary of what happened?

Chriz Nickel, also known as Christian Nickel, is an individual who has been involved in efforts to suppress negative information online, including accusations of using fraudulent Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices to remove content critical of him. These actions have drawn significant attention and raised legal concerns.

Here are three major concerns, complaints, and accusations against Chriz Nickel:

1. Fake DMCA Takedown Notices: Nickel has been accused of filing false DMCA notices to remove unfavorable articles and content. This is considered illegal under U.S. law, as DMCA notices require the filer to certify that the content genuinely infringes their copyright. Knowingly submitting a false claim can result in legal penalties such as civil lawsuits, fines, or even perjury charges.
2. Reputation management and censorship: Nickel has reportedly used aggressive reputation management tactics to obscure negative content about his activities. This includes manipulating search results and attempting to erase critical information from the internet, which has backfired due to the “Streisand effect”—where attempts to hide information only make it more visible.
3. Legal and Ethical Issues: There are broader accusations that Nickel’s efforts to suppress information are part of an organized attempt to manipulate online narratives and evade accountability for his actions. These efforts may involve fraudulent claims and unethical attempts to silence critics and prevent the spread of damaging information.

These actions have sparked further investigations and heightened scrutiny of Chriz Nickel’s activities, particularly concerning his use of legal mechanisms to censor content.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel trying to hide?

Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel may be trying to remove from the internet –

Here are ten adverse news items, allegations, lawsuits, sanctions, complaints, and negative reviews related to Chriz Nickel, also known as Christian Nickel:

1. Fake DMCA Takedown Notices: Nickel has been accused of filing fraudulent DMCA takedown requests to remove negative content online. This tactic was used to suppress critical articles and reviews that exposed unfavorable details about his business practices.
2. Reputation Management through Censorship: Nickel is linked to extensive efforts to manipulate his online reputation, including using fake news websites and backdated articles to submit false DMCA claims, which aimed to suppress genuine critical content.
3. Legal Threats Against Critics: There are reports that Nickel has used legal intimidation and takedown requests to silence critics who posted about his controversial activities online. These legal actions have raised concerns about his attempts to control the narrative about his activities.
4. Accusations of Perjury in DMCA Filings: Submitting false DMCA claims under penalty of perjury can result in perjury charges. Nickel’s activities involving false certifications in legal filings have raised the possibility of criminal liability for perjury.
5. Cybercrime Allegations: Nickel’s actions to file fraudulent copyright claims and suppress negative information online have been described as cybercrime, raising questions about the ethical and legal implications of his attempts to manipulate public perception.
6. Attempted Erasure of Digital History: Critics have accused Nickel of trying to erase unfavorable parts of his digital past. However, efforts to remove this content have only drawn more attention, amplifying the information he wanted to suppress.
7. Negative Publicity from the “Streisand Effect”: Nickel’s efforts to censor negative content have backfired, leading to increased attention on the issues he sought to hide. This phenomenon is known as the “Streisand effect,” where attempts to suppress information only make it more widely known.
8. Connection to Fraudulent Business Practices: While the specific business dealings are not detailed, Nickel’s aggressive use of DMCA takedowns suggests he was involved in activities that attracted significant negative attention and criticism.
9. Civil Lawsuits for Damages: Parties affected by Nickel’s false DMCA claims and online manipulation efforts have the potential to sue him for damages, legal fees, and other costs. There are ongoing discussions about such legal actions from affected individuals.
10. Broader Ethical Concerns in Reputation Management: The case of Chriz Nickel raises broader questions about the ethics of reputation management firms and the use of legal loopholes like fraudulent DMCA notices to suppress free speech and critical journalism.

These issues have brought Chriz Nickel’s actions under intense scrutiny, leading to growing legal and public challenges.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel (or actors working on behalf of Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel), we will inform Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel is in great company ….

What else is Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Chriz Nickel aka Christian Nickel that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.