Did Dryvyng CEO Craig R. Brittain demand the removal of “fake, slanderous, libelous” articles about his sleazy revenge porn past?
In February, an anonymous representative for Scottsdale, Arizona ridesharing company Dryvyng sent Google a number of takedown requests asking the search engine to delist articles about notorious revenge porn website, IsAnybodyDown?
Citing US copyright law, the complainant asked Google to “permanently remove” articles by Business Insider, Fusion, and Wikipedia, on the basis that they allegedly include “slanderous, libelous and deliberately misleading” information “designed to defame and libel me and my company.”
The complainant also requested that Google remove “all of Wikipedia itself,” describing the online encyclopedia as “a left-wing hive for slander and libel.”
IsAnybodyDown? was founded in 2011 by Dryvyng’s CEO Craig R. Brittain. The controversial site encouraged users to anonymously submit non-consensual nude photos along with identifying information about the person in the photos, including their full name, home address, and Facebook screenshots.
In 2013, the site shut down after an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission determined Brittain had hosted fake lawyer advertisements on the site in order to trick victims into paying hundreds of dollars to have their photos removed.
I wasn’t able to confirm Brittain filed the takedown requests as he didn’t reply to my request for comment, however I did get a reply from criminal defence/First Amendment attorney Ken White, co-founder of the Popehat blog.
White has written extensively about Brittain’s revenge porn antics (click here to read), and in 2012 and 2015, his blog was even the target of two takedown requests by Brittain.
White said the complainant’s defamation claim “appears to be complete nonsense.”
This item has been revised to emphasise I was unable to get a reply from Brittain to confirm he sent the takedown requests.
Shooting the Messenger 
8 responses to “The Return of Craig R. Brittain”
[…] to Dean Sterling Jones at Shooting The Messenger, I see that the demented and easily enraged Craig Brittain has returned to his habit of ineffectual […]
[…] has once again asked Google to delist all sorts of things he has no business asking to be delisted. Dean Jones of Shooting the Messenger is the person who originally discovered a handful of notices sent by “Dryvyng,” all of which feature petulant commentary not […]
[…] has once again asked Google to delist all sorts of things he has no business asking to be delisted. Dean Jones of Shooting the Messenger is the person who originally discovered a handful of notices sent by “Dryvyng,” all of which feature petulant commentary not […]
[…] has once again asked Google to delist all sorts of things he has no business asking to be delisted. Dean Jones of Shooting the Messenger is the person who originally discovered a handful of notices sent by “Dryvyng,” all of which feature petulant commentary not […]
[…] has once again asked Google to delist all sorts of things he has no business asking to be delisted. Dean Jones of Shooting the Messenger is the person who originally discovered a handful of notices sent by “Dryvyng,” all of which feature petulant commentary not […]
[…] has once again asked Google to delist all sorts of things he has no business asking to be delisted. Dean Jones of Shooting the Messenger is the person who originally discovered a handful of notices sent by “Dryvyng,” all of which feature petulant commentary not […]
[…] to Dean Sterling Jones at Shooting The Messenger, I see that the demented and easily enraged Craig Brittain has returned to his habit of ineffectual […]
[…] I recently blogged about Craig R. Brittain, founder and CEO of Scottsdale, AZ ridesharing company Dryvyng. […]