A Thanksgiving note from OHL Communications regarding defamatory content circulating online
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
OHL Director of Communications Josh Sweetland here just dropping a quick, and relatively informal note to all of those following the league across a busy weekend to be discerning with some of the things you may come across online regarding the Ontario Hockey League and several of its hard-working members both on the ice and behind the bench.
In recent days, the league has been made aware of a malicious website that appears to be creating AI-generated defamatory articles, essentially spamming search engines in an effort to get cheap clicks by spreading outrageous lies about various individuals across the North American sporting landscape. Unfortunately, the OHL hasn’t been spared from this, and several absurd articles have been published about coaches, and even a few players, accusing them of things like drug abuse, being fired, marital infidelity and experiencing health emergencies. This is also affecting representatives with teams in prominent leagues such as the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball.
I’m not going to do these individuals the service of posting a link to the URL of this website as I don’t want them generating extra ad revenue through this disgusting behaviour. These stories tend to get picked up through Google alerts, and have made their way into various online OHL fan groups and team message boards located on places such as Facebook. Please be on the lookout for these libellous publications and do your part to protect the integrity of hard-working individuals, who also want to have an opportunity to spend time with their families this Thanksgiving without the burden of these slanderous headlines interfering with their friendships and impacting their reputations.
Thanks for taking a quick read, and enjoy the rest of the weekend! We’ve got three more OHL games on the slate for Sunday, with two more on Monday!
Yours in hockey,
Josh Sweetland (@joshsweetland on X)
Director, Communications
Ontario Hockey League