A cease and desist letter is a written demand that a person or company stop a specific activity, such as publishing defamatory or infringing content, and often that they remove it.
A cease and desist letter is not a court order and has no legal force on its own. It sets out the conduct complained of, the legal basis (for example defamation, copyright, trademark or privacy), what the sender wants done and by when, and usually what may follow if the recipient does not comply. In some jurisdictions a pre-action letter is an expected step before a lawsuit; in England and Wales it is called a letter before action or letter of claim.
Letters are commonly sent by lawyers, but anyone can send one. A letter that overstates its claims or targets lawful criticism can backfire: the recipient may publish it, drawing more attention to the content, and a lawsuit that follows against protected speech may face an anti-SLAPP motion.
In practice
A cease and desist letter is most useful when the author or site owner is identifiable and the content is clearly unlawful — a false accusation or a copied photo, for example — and you want it removed at the source. When the author is anonymous or ignores letters, platform policies, host notices and search-engine requests are usually more effective. Nullify is not a law firm; a letter that threatens legal action is best reviewed by a lawyer.
Related removals
- Personal reputation repair — Priced per removal, from $350, pay on success
- Reputation management — Priced per removal, from $350, pay on success
Related terms
- Defamation — Defamation is a false statement of fact, communicated to others, that damages the reputation of an identifiable person or business.
- SLAPP — A SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) is a legal action brought mainly to silence or intimidate critics, journalists or activists rather than to win a genuine claim.
- Takedown notice — A takedown notice is a formal written request asking a platform, host or search engine to remove specific content because it breaks the law or the provider's own rules.
- Source removal — Source removal means deleting content where it is actually published — on the website, platform or server that hosts it — rather than only hiding it from search results.