Court Shutters 3 H-1B Opposition Sites

As part of a libel lawsuit, a court issues takedown orders to hosting and domain providers for ITgrunt.com, Endh1b.com and Guestworkerfraud.com. Apex, an IT consulting company, claims the sites are engaging in false and defamatory statements about Apex's employment agreement.

A New Jersey county superior court judge has ordered takedown notices for three anti-H-1B Websites as part of a libel lawsuit by IT consulting company Apex Technology Group. The sites targeted by Judge James Hurley are ITgrunt.com, Endh1b.com and Guestworkerfraud.com. The judge also ordered Facebook to disable ITgrunt's Facebook page.

According to a story in Computerworld, the takedown notices were directed to hosting and domain providers Go Daddy, Network Solutions, Comcast Cable Communications and DiscountASP.net.

Apex's libel lawsuit involves the posting of an Apex employment agreement on Docstoc.com. Although the document was removed by Docstoc, a number of other sites linked to the site and generated numerous negative comments about Apex. According to Computerworld, the employment agreement would make it difficult for an employee to leave the company.

According to Apex, the charges are not true, subsequent posts on several sites about the employment agreement are false and defamatory, and the publicity is hurting the company's business. Apex claimed the original poster has been identified but the damage to Apex continues, including claims being made that Apex is engaged in illegal activities.