How to Remove a News Article About Me: Publisher, Google and Court Routes

Most matters use more than one route. The publisher route is the one that takes the article off the web, so it comes before the others whenever the publisher can be reached. The Google routes change what people see when they search your name, which is often what matters most to clients, employers and family, but they leave the page in place. The legal routes take longer, depend on the law of the place where the outlet publishes, and are usually run by lawyers in that place.

The table compares the routes. Each one is decided by someone else: a publisher, Google, a platform, the police, the prosecution or a court. No one can promise their decision in advance.

Google's help pages say this in terms: even if Google removes something from Google Search, it might still be on the internet, and removing it from the site means contacting the site owner. A delisted result changes what Google shows when someone searches your name. It does not change the page itself, other search engines, web archives, aggregator sites that copied the story, or posts and messages that shared it.

Ask two questions of any service that offers to remove an article. Is the page coming down at the source, or is a result being dropped from search? And which search engines, sites and copies does the work cover? A removal audit, which lists every URL with its route and what that route can achieve, answers both at the start.

Publishing new pages so that they outrank the article, often called SEO suppression, is a third thing again. The article stays online and in the index, and it can come back into view when the new pages lose their positions. RepuLex's work is removal at the source or delisting from search, and where neither is open for a URL, the audit says so.

A UAE access block is narrower still. Under Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Countering Rumours and Cybercrimes, an access blocking order directs the UAE service provider to disable users' access in the UAE to the website or account. The content stays online elsewhere, so colleagues, clients and family in India or anywhere else outside the UAE can still read it.

Find out who decides. Most outlets publish a corrections or contact address, and larger ones have a standards or legal desk. Write to the editor responsible for the article rather than to the reporter's social media account, and keep a copy of everything you send and receive.

Ask for the smallest change that solves your problem. An editor is more likely to agree to a change that keeps the record accurate than to one that erases it. In rising order of what you ask the publisher to give up, the options are these:

State the URL, the passage you object to and why, and the change you want. Attach the documents. Keep the tone neutral, and do not copy the letter to the publisher's advertisers, rivals or social media followers.

Do not threaten. Article 42 of Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Countering Rumours and Cybercrimes punishes using an information network or IT equipment to extort or threaten another person to force them to act or to refrain from acting, with imprisonment of not more than 2 years and/or a fine of AED 250,000 to AED 500,000. A demand framed as a threat can turn your request into a complaint against you.

If the publisher agrees, ask it to confirm in writing what it has changed, and note the date. If it deletes the page, use Google's refresh tool, described below, so that the old result drops out of search. If it declines, ask for its reasons: the answer often shows whether a Google policy or a legal route is the next step.

For a UAE outlet, the competences of the former UAE Media Council under the Media Law are now exercised by the National Media Authority, which replaced the Council and the National Media Office from 1 January 2026 (Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2025). The Media Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 55 of 2023 Regulating Media, applies to all persons, media establishments and institutions, media outlets and media free zones that practise media activities within the State (Article 2). We have not verified whether it gives a reader a right of correction or reply, or a complaint route about an article, so this guide does not rely on one.

Do not pay the site that carries the article, or a site that copied it, to take it down. Google's Search removal policies cover content about you on sites with exploitative removal practices, so report such a site to Google instead.

Refresh outdated content. If the article has been deleted from the site but still comes up in Google Search, Google's "Refresh outdated content" tool lets you submit the URL and request a refresh. Google's help page says that if a live page has already been updated, you do not have to fill in the form. The tool does nothing for an article that is still live and unchanged.

Search removal policies. Google's policies list content related to individuals under 18, personally identifiable info and doxxing content, personal sexual content, and content about you on sites with exploitative removal practices. A news article as a whole rarely falls within these, but a copy that adds private details about you, or that sits on a site charging for removal, may.

Where any of the content concerns someone under 18, report it to the police: 999 in an emergency, the Dubai Police e-crime service, Abu Dhabi Police Aman or the Ministry of Interior eCrimes platform. RepuLex does not take matters involving children as reputation work.

Legal removal. Other content that should be removed under the law goes through Google's legal-removal process. You identify each URL and the law you rely on, and Google assesses the request itself. Where a UAE court has ruled on the content, attach the judgment or order, so that Google has a court's decision to act on rather than your own account of the law.

Other search engines run their own request processes, and a Google decision does not bind them. Make a separate request to each one your audience uses.

Many readers in the UAE find that the article they want gone was published in India: a city news portal, a regional-language site, or an Indian report of a business or family dispute. It is often what employers, clients and family in both countries find when they search the name, which is why it tends to head the list.

For Indian outlets and platforms, RepuLex coordinates the work and its partner law firm handles the legal acts under Indian law: a legal notice under an advocate's signature to the publisher or platform and, where needed, an application to the competent Indian court. RepuLex prepares the evidence and the removal audit, makes the publisher and Google requests, and monitors for copies.

The Indian route reaches the Indian source. It does not reach a UAE or international outlet, and the partner law firm cannot file, complain or appear in the UAE. Where the same story also runs on a UAE site, that part goes to UAE counsel you instruct. The page on reputation management for Indians in the UAE explains how the two routes run together.

UAE law treats defamation and invasion of privacy as crimes as well as civil wrongs. Article 43 of the Cybercrime Decree-Law punishes using an information network, IT equipment or an information system to insult another, or to attribute to them a quality that would make them subject to punishment or contempt by third parties, with imprisonment and/or a fine of AED 250,000 to AED 500,000. Under Article 425 of the Penal Code, Federal Decree-Law No. 31 of 2021, publication in a newspaper or printed material is an aggravating circumstance for attributing to someone an incident that would expose them to punishment or public hatred or contempt.

A note on words: the official English translation of the Penal Code calls the Article 425 offence "libel" and the Article 426 insult "slander". It uses "libel" for attributing a specific incident and "slander" for an insult without one, not, as in everyday English, for writing and speech.

Privacy is protected even where the information is true. Article 431 of the Penal Code punishes publishing, by any means of publicity, news, photos or comments related to the private or family life secrets of individuals "even if they are true". Article 44 of the Cybercrime Decree-Law punishes invading private or family life online without consent, including by publishing news, photos, comments, data or information "even if it is true and genuine", with intention of harming the person; the penalty is imprisonment of at least 6 months and/or a fine of AED 150,000 to AED 500,000. Whether a particular article meets these conditions is for the prosecution and the court.

A criminal action for the offences that Article 11 of the Criminal Procedures Law lists as "insult and slander of people" needs a complaint by the victim, or by their representative or an attorney under a special power of attorney, filed with the Public Prosecution or a judicial police officer (Articles 11 and 12 of that law, Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2022). Take advice within three months of learning of the post and who made it: Article 11 says the complaint is not admitted after three months from when the victim becomes aware of the crime and its perpetrator. We have not found a primary text settling whether that limit also governs the online offence in Article 43 of the Cybercrime Decree-Law, so treat three months as the working deadline. If you have known of the article and its author for longer, ask your lawyer what remains open; the civil claim has its own limit.

Two rules frame what UAE law can do. UAE law sets no fixed statutory deadline for platforms to remove content: an order sets its own period. And a private person cannot issue a removal or blocking order; that power sits with the competent authorities, the Attorney General and the courts.

UAE courts have ordered more than money. As reported by Gulf News, in a Snapchat defamation case the Al Ain Court for Civil, Commercial and Administrative Claims awarded AED 100,000, below the AED 200,000 claimed, and ordered "an apology and a clear denial of the allegations via the same Snapchat account". The civil award followed a criminal conviction, in which, the report says, three defendants were fined AED 10,000 each, the phone was confiscated and the video was ordered deleted. It is a news report, not a precedent.

The orders available under UAE law are these:

The rule is in Article 6(2) of Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2022 Regulating the Legal Profession and Legal Consultation Profession. Being a national citizen is the first condition for entry on the Roll (Article 13(1)). A non-national may be licensed only in limited cases, before designated specialised circuits, excluding criminal proceedings (Article 10), subject to case-by-case temporary permission for lawyers of other states (Article 80(1)(d)).

You can lodge a criminal complaint yourself, with the police or the Public Prosecution. The onshore courts use Arabic as their official language and hear non-Arabic speakers through a sworn interpreter (Article 5(1) of the Civil Procedure Code, Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022). For the filing itself, see how to file a defamation case in Dubai, and for the offences and penalties, the guide to defamation in UAE law.

RepuLex is an online reputation management agency, not a law firm, and holds no UAE licence. It does not file complaints, sue or appear in the UAE. It works alongside the UAE lawyer you instruct, on the evidence record, the removal audit, the publisher and Google requests, and monitoring.

Most international outlets publish a corrections or complaints procedure, and the publisher route above applies to them unchanged. Google's requests can be made whichever country the article comes from, and Google decides each one under its own process.

UAE law can still matter. Article 69 of the Cybercrime Decree-Law applies the Decree-Law to offences committed outside the UAE where, among other cases, the crime harms any of its nationals or residents, or the offender is later found in the UAE and has not been extradited. Whether a complaint against a foreign publisher is practical is a question for your UAE lawyer, and a UAE access block, if one is ordered, works in the UAE only.

News is copied. Aggregators, syndication partners, web archives and social media posts carry their own copies, each with its own URL and its own owner. List every copy before you start: each needs its own request, and a removal at the source does not always reach them.

Gather these before you contact the publisher, Google or a lawyer:

Each of these makes matters worse:

The work starts with the removal audit: each URL, the route that fits it and what that route can and cannot achieve, including the URLs where no route is likely to succeed. Then come the dated, hashed evidence record, the requests to publishers and to Google, the Indian legal route for Indian outlets, and monitoring for copies. RepuLex holds no UAE licence and has no UAE office, and every UAE legal step is yours or your UAE lawyer's.

RepuLex works on published fixed fees per URL, paid in advance and refunded in full for any URL not removed within its agreed timeline, as long as the documents and authority requested for that URL are supplied. For how the work is organised across the Emirates, see online reputation management in the UAE.