Swiss media stories among targets of firm that ‘eliminates past’ for corrupt clients

One technique used by Eliminalia involves using hundreds of fake online media with names like CNN News Today or Taiwan Times to post glowing articles about clients, while authentic articles are pushed out of search engine results. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

Some articles published online by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and other Swiss news outlets have disappeared, thanks to an e-reputation company called Eliminalia that caters to criminals and corrupt politicians, a global disinformation investigation reveals.

Confidential documents seen by journalists at Swiss public television RTSExternal link show that thousands of investigative stories published by media worldwide have been erased or made invisible on the internet.

Spanish-owned reputation management firm Eliminalia, which promises to “eliminate your past [and] help you with your future”, has dozens of offices worldwide, including three in Switzerland. Although it claims to use legal methods to delete photos or negative comments for clients who say they’ve been victims of “unjustified” online attacks, the reality is different, RTS reports.

The list of Eliminalia clients seen by RTS, one of 30 news organisations taking part in a global investigation on disinformation campaigns led by the French NGO Forbidden Stories, include convicted sex traffickers, arms dealers, fraudsters and even former torturers from Chile. Of over 1,500 clients worldwide, RTS identified 43 in Switzerland. Several are Italian nationals living in the southern canton of Ticino hoping to clear their names from the mafia business in Italy. Others are people involved in tax evasion or cryptocurrency scams. One is a circus performer recently convicted of sexual assault on a minor. Clients can pay up to hundreds of thousands of francs for Eliminalia’s services.

‘A digital hitman’

The “right to be forgotten rule” in the European Union and to ask search engines to remove information can be justified in certain cases, according to Sébastien Fanti, a digital law expert.

“A youthful mistake [or] a teenager’s stupidity should not follow a person all his or her life on the internet,” Fanti told RTS. “With Eliminalia, it’s not about the ‘right to be forgotten’. It erases the investigative work of journalists [and] erases the truth. This company is a digital hitman.”

Eliminalia says it can erase any news article online. According to the global investigative consortium, articles from Le Monde, Vice News, as well as from Swiss media, including the SBC (the parent company of SWI swissinfo.ch), Local.ch and 24 Heures, have been deleted using various methods. One is the “drowning” technique, which involves using hundreds of fake online media with names like CNN News Today or Taiwan Times to post glowing articles about clients. While these fake stories land at the top of Google search results, authentic stories get drowned out. Eliminania also has a technique to get search engines to remove authentic articles from their sites.

The company did not respond to the consortium’s request for comment, instead sending the reporters a letter threatening legal action. Information on its wealthy founder, Diego “Didac” Sanchez, was scarce online, with the exception of glowing articles and videos – probably, RTS speculates, because he uses his own company’s services to scrub his past.