How to Remove Negative Reviews of 'Japanese Nurse Specialists

What is Nurse Specialist?

Nurse Specialist is the largest nursing and nursing student community site in Japan, operated by SMS Career Co., Ltd. It offers a variety of features such as a “Lounge” where nurses and nursing students can solve problems through a bulletin board format, preparation for the national nursing exam, the latest nursing and medical news, and a “Workplace Report” which is a review content of hospitals and facilities. The site allows you to hear the raw voices of nurses and trainees on the ground, making it a strong ally for those working in the nursing and medical industry.

For example, with the Workplace Report, you can narrow down and search for hospitals based on working conditions, or view reviews from seniors who are actually working at the hospitals you are interested in. This can be useful for finding potential job change destinations or for preliminary research before joining a new workplace.

On the other hand, as Nurse Specialist is a community site centered on user information exchange, the main source of information is word-of-mouth. Therefore, negative posts can have adverse effects, such as giving a bad impression to hospitals and clinics, or causing job postings to fail. For users, defamatory posts can potentially cause significant damage.

What are the Negative Reviews Posted on Nurse Specialist?

Nurse Specialist is a review site centered around user posts, so it’s possible that negative reviews may be posted. The main content on Nurse Specialist is reviews, primarily in the “Lounge” and “Workplace Reports” sections. In this article, we will explain the content of negative reviews and reputational damage that can be expected in the “Workplace Reports” section.

Reviews Accusing Managers of Power Harassment and Sexual Harassment

Workplace Reports are a platform for publishing the raw voices of seniors who have actually worked there, so the content is mainly about what they felt during their work. It is conceivable that seniors who have suffered harassment at work and had a hard time may post reviews expressing their hope that no one else will have to go through such experiences. Reports of harassment are not the only issue; allegations about long working hours and salary issues, as well as working conditions, can also be expected.

However, for hospitals, such posts can negatively affect recruitment, making it difficult to carry out desired hiring activities. Especially if measures are being taken to address these issues, such as improving working conditions or disciplining nurses who have committed harassment, it is undesirable for such posts to continue to exist as they do not reflect the actual situation and can be considered negative reviews.

Reviews Not Based on Work Experience or Facts

For example, a review saying, “When I received treatment, the doctors and nurses at the hospital left a bad impression. I can’t trust their diagnosis,” is not based on work experience. Workplace Reports are not patient reports, but a place to write reviews from a nurse’s perspective and connect them to hospital recruitment. Therefore, such reviews can be said to be inconsistent with the purpose. Even if someone who has never worked there says “the impression was not good,” the reality may not be so, and it is undesirable for the hospital to have its recruitment hindered by unrelated individuals.

Also, saying “I can’t trust the diagnosis” without stating the facts that serve as the basis not only is not desirable for recruitment, but can also potentially damage the reputation of the hospital itself. Such reviews should be considered for deletion.

Reviews Containing Malicious Expressions or Defamation

Other possible issues include reviews containing malicious expressions or defamatory descriptions. Such expressions are not beneficial and are merely attacks on specific individuals or hospitals, so they should be considered for immediate deletion. The Nurse Specialist management team checks all review content, so blatant defamatory posts are rare. However, as it is a review site, it is possible that posts containing defamation or malicious expressions may remain. For those who may suffer damage to their reputation due to such posts, it is desirable to have them deleted as soon as possible.

How to Request Removal for Violation of Terms of Use

“Nurse Specialist” Terms of Use

The “Nurse Specialist” Terms of Use, Article 16 (Prohibited Matters Regarding Post Content on Bulletin Boards, etc.) lists prohibited matters. If the review you want to remove falls under any of these items, it could be subject to removal.

“Nurse Specialist” Review Posting Guidelines

In addition to Article 16 of the Terms of Use, “Nurse Specialist” has prepared guidelines for posting reviews. Here, examples of reviews that could be subject to removal are shown. Posts that violate these guidelines could also be subject to removal.

How to Make a Removal Request

On Nurse Specialist, there are violation report forms for both the Lounge and Workplace Reports. You can access the violation report form by clicking on the small [Violation Report] at the bottom left of the relevant post.

Example of Making a Removal Request for Violation of Terms of Use

When making an inquiry, follow this form and specify which review it relates to, so that it is easier for the Nurse Specialist side to identify it.

In the violation report form of Nurse Specialist, examples of violations of the terms of use are briefly indicated as violation categories. Choose the appropriate violation category. If none apply or if you are unsure which one applies, select “Other”. However, if it falls under “Other”, it means that it is not a typical case for removal, so carefully confirm whether the relevant post violates the terms of use and strive to fill in the explanation section more carefully.

For this example, we will use a review that accuses a head nurse of power harassment or sexual harassment, as introduced earlier. First, regarding the violation category tab, since the accusatory review does not fall under any of the tabs, select “Other”. The explanation section could be written as follows:

Thank you for your attention. I am △△ from the administration department of ○○ Memorial Hospital. I would like to request the removal of this review. In the third line of this review, it is written that “I experienced sexual harassment from Head Nurse A during my internship.”
However, no such fact has been confirmed during the said internship period. This falls under Article 16, Item 14 of the Terms of Use, which prohibits “providing information contrary to fact”. Also, even if such a fact existed, a post including such an accusation does not serve the purpose of helping to choose a hospital, which is the purpose of the Workplace Report, and falls under Item 5 of the Guidelines, which is “accusation regarding violations, accidents, problems, etc.”. Such posts have a negative impact on our hospital’s recruitment activities and management, so we would like to request removal. Thank you for your understanding.

However, the violation report form states:

This report does not promise to remove the post content. Whether or not to delete the message will be determined by the management. Also, please note that we cannot respond to the results or reasons for deletion.

This means that whether or not to delete is at the discretion of Nurse Specialist, and the reason for deletion is not disclosed. Therefore, just because you request removal, it does not necessarily mean that it will be removed.

If the post is not removed even after making a removal request, you may consider making a request for transmission prevention measures against Nurse Specialist, or considering filing a lawsuit. These are legal matters, so you will need to handle them yourself or consult with a lawyer. Be careful when entrusting to a removal agent other than a lawyer, as it may result in a violation of the law.

Requesting Removal on the Grounds of Illegality

Legal Measures Available

If the content infringes on rights or violates the law, you can dispute the removal through a lawyer in court. Firstly, the legal measures that can be taken in relation to online reputation damage control are broadly divided into:

• Request for voluntary removal by transmission prevention measures
• Request for removal of posted articles & application for provisional disposition
• Request for disclosure of sender information (Disclosure of IP address, request for disclosure of name and address)
• Claim for damages (Claim for damages after identifying the poster)

Among these, the requests directly related to removal are the request for transmission prevention measures, the request for removal of posted articles, and the application for provisional disposition.

What to Claim Legally

So, when making a legal request for removal, the first thing to consider is to claim ‘defamation’. Defamation is established when there are facts that meet all of the following:

• ‘Publicly’
• ‘Indicating a fact’
• ‘Defaming a person’s reputation’

For example, if a review based on untrue content such as “○○ Hospital is making nurses do medical acts that only doctors can do” is posted, let’s look specifically at whether it meets the requirements 1 to 3. Firstly, posts on review sites like Nurse Specialist, as in this case, can be said to be ‘publicly’ as they are placed in a state where an unspecified number of people can view them on the Internet.

Next, ‘indicating a fact’ means to tell a concrete fact that is sufficient to lower a person’s social evaluation, regardless of whether it is true or false. This time, the content that nurses are made to do medical acts that only doctors can do (called absolute medical acts) indicates that ○○ Hospital is practicing against the Medical Practitioners’ Law, which can be said to be sufficient to lower social evaluation.

Finally, to ‘defame’, even if the social evaluation is not actually harmed, it is sufficient if there is an abstract risk of it, and it is not necessary for the reputation to be actually infringed. It is not necessary to prove that the post in question was viewed by an unspecified number of people on internet news and SNS, and that criticism and protests flooded the hospital. It is enough to say that there is an objective risk. Please refer to the following article for detailed requirements for defamation.

https://monolith.law/reputation/defamation[ja]

Removal through the Court Process (Provisional Disposition)

When seeking removal due to legal violations such as defamation, the usual first step is to request a transmission prevention measure. However, this is a method of requesting removal without going through the courts, asking for voluntary removal by the provider (Nurse Specialist). In the terms of use of Nurse Specialist, it is clearly stated that there may be cases where removal is legally possible, so it is highly likely that removal will be achieved by this method. However, as this is a voluntary measure, depending on the judgment, removal may not be carried out.

In contrast, in the process through the courts, if removal is approved in the trial, binding force arises from the judgment, so the provider (Nurse Specialist) will be forced to comply with the removal. Therefore, if the transmission prevention measure is not approved, it is effective to transition to the court procedure.

Provisional disposition is a method stipulated in the Civil Preservation Law (Japanese Civil Preservation Law), and is used when a quick resolution is required, to seek temporary measures before obtaining a final judgment by a formal lawsuit. In cases like this, where there is a lot of slanderous reviews, once they spread, there is a high risk of incurring irreparable damage, so it is effective to use the provisional disposition system to seek the removal of information as soon as possible. When a provisional disposition order is issued, the court orders the other party to remove the post, so the other party will comply with the removal. In the case of provisional disposition, if you consult with a lawyer who has expertise in reputation damage measures, in many cases, it can be realized in about 2-3 months from the request to removal, making it an effective measure.

For detailed explanations about the removal of articles in cases of defamation or reputation damage, and the procedure for provisional disposition, please refer to the article below.

https://monolith.law/reputation/provisional-disposition[ja]

Identification of Posters through Provisional Dispositions

If you seek the assistance of a lawyer for the identification of posters through provisional dispositions, it is possible to disclose information such as the poster’s IP address through a so-called sender information disclosure request, potentially identifying the poster. By doing this, you can demand compensation for damages suffered due to defamatory posts from the identified sender. The flow of these procedures is explained in detail in the article below.

https://monolith.law/reputation/disclosure-of-the-senders-information[ja]

Summary

The Nurse Specialist website is monitored 24/7 by its management team, which helps to keep malicious posts to a minimum, making it a safe site to use. If reputational damage does occur due to reviews, it may be possible to resolve the issue by taking measures such as post deletion. However, the method and argument to be used, and whether deletion will be permitted, will vary depending on the individual case.

In any case, asserting illegality involves complex matters and methods, making it difficult for individuals to handle, and it also involves legal actions, so the assistance of a lawyer is necessary. First, consult with a lawyer to determine whether the review in question infringes on rights or violates the law.