Colgate University

A summary of what happened?

Colgate University is a private liberal arts college located in Hamilton, New York, known for its strong academic programs and vibrant campus life. Despite its reputation, the university has faced significant scrutiny over its handling of Title IX cases and discrimination policies.

Major Concerns and Accusations:

1. Title IX and Due Process Lawsuits: Colgate has faced legal challenges related to how it handles Title IX cases involving allegations of sexual misconduct. Accusations include unfair treatment of respondents, bias in investigative procedures, and inadequate due process protections. In a notable case, a male student successfully challenged the university, highlighting procedural flaws that led to his expulsion.
2. Handling of Sexual Misconduct: Complaints have emerged regarding Colgate’s approach to sexual misconduct, where students and advocates have criticized the university for either mishandling cases or fostering perceptions of bias in decision-making processes. This has raised concerns over the balance between supporting victims and ensuring fair treatment for all parties involved.
3. Allegations of Censorship: Criticism from lawsuits and public opinion has prompted discussions about the university’s commitment to transparency and accountability in managing sensitive issues. Some claim that institutions may engage in strategies to protect their reputation when facing adverse publicity.

Conclusion: The major concerns involving Colgate University revolve around its handling of Title IX and sexual misconduct cases, where issues of fairness and procedural integrity have been called into question. The university’s efforts to balance safety, equity, and fair processes remain topics of active dialogue and legal challenge.

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 Colgate University trying to hide?

Colgate University‘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 Colgate University in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Colgate University may be trying to remove from the internet –

In-Depth Investigative Report on Allegations, Lawsuits, and Complaints Against Colgate University

Overview

Colgate University, a prestigious liberal arts institution, has faced significant legal and public scrutiny over its handling of Title IX cases and student complaints. Concerns have been raised about the fairness of its procedures and the institution’s commitment to impartiality and justice.

1. Title IX Violations and Legal Challenges

Colgate University has been embroiled in multiple high-profile Title IX cases where male students accused the institution of bias and procedural flaws during investigations of sexual misconduct. A landmark case involved a student, known pseudonymously as John Doe, who successfully argued that Colgate’s investigation was skewed, leading to an unfair expulsion. A federal court sided with him, underscoring flaws in how Colgate conducted its hearings and decision-making.

Procedural Issues: The court found that Colgate’s processes potentially violated due process by failing to provide the accused student a fair opportunity to defend himself. Such findings cast doubts on whether Colgate’s Title IX procedures meet the balance required to support complainants while ensuring equitable treatment for respondents.

2. Handling of Sexual Misconduct and Transparency Concerns

The university’s non-discrimination and sexual misconduct policies, as stated on its official site, aim to protect students and maintain an equitable environment. However, some students and observers have pointed to inconsistencies in their implementation. Critics argue that Colgate’s commitment to fairness does not always translate into practice, leading to uneven applications of policy and strained trust among students.

3. Allegations of Institutional Bias

Cases brought to light by students and legal experts have highlighted what they describe as institutional bias in favor of complainants. This bias allegedly manifests in how evidence is evaluated and how decisions are made, with accusations that male respondents often receive more severe outcomes without a balanced assessment of all evidence.

4. Impact on Reputation and Institutional Responses

Colgate’s responses to lawsuits and accusations have raised questions about the university’s transparency and commitment to reform. Although the university has defended its policies as compliant with federal guidelines, rulings against it have emphasized the need for reassessing its practices to align more closely with fair process requirements.

Conclusion

The controversies surrounding Colgate University’s handling of Title IX cases illustrate the challenges of upholding fairness in complex sexual misconduct investigations. The combination of legal defeats, allegations of bias, and procedural criticisms points to the necessity for continued policy reassessment and transparency. Addressing these challenges head-on will be essential for Colgate to maintain trust among its student body and the broader public.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Colgate University (or actors working on behalf of Colgate University), we will inform Colgate University of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Colgate University may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Colgate University, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Colgate University 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 Colgate University 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 Colgate University is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Colgate University

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 Colgate University Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Colgate University 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. Colgate University 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 Colgate University 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. Colgate University 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 Colgate University 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, Colgate University either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Colgate University, 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. Colgate University is in great company ….

What else is Colgate University hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Colgate University] + {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 Colgate University 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.