This was hailed at the time as a landmark victory against online trolls.
A business went to court to force internet firms to reveal personal details of people who were abusing it online.
“We are determined to bring our abusers to justice,” stated Wyvern Media and offshoots including JPC Group Sales Ltd after they were accused by bloggers of being a scam and “a criminal enterprise”.
Following a High Court ruling in 2011, Google removed critical blogs, while MoneySavingExpert handed over the details of three critical commentators, much against its will and normal policy.
“Regrettably – on this occasion - we were ultimately subject to a court order and forced to hand over a minimal amount of information,” said Jason Mills, Editor-in-Chief at MoneySavingExpert.
But Wyvern was a criminal enterprise and the people attacking it were not trolls, they were victims of fraud.
Earlier this month I reported how the culprits at Wyvern were brought to justice by the National Trading Standards Scambuster Team (East Midlands), my report is here.
Wyvern called businesses, claiming to be the publisher of free local papers, and netted around £7million a year selling advertising space.
But the papers were a figment and none of the 18,000 advertisers got new business through ads placed.
Birmingham ringleader 55-year-old Jonathan Rivers got a six year prison sentence for fraud and four accomplices were also jailed.
What has not yet come to light is how he employed a London media lawyer to stifle critical blogs.
“The first UK Google injunction was obtained in 2011 by Yair Cohen,” boasts Cohen himself on his website.
“The order required Google to reveal personal details of individuals who were defaming a UK business on the internet.”
Cohen speaks of Wyvern's “genuine attempts” to satisfy all its customers, but “a small number remained disgruntled”.
“In light of the High Court order and in face of other evidence gathered, Google decided of its own accord to shut down the defamatory blogs,” he goes on.
“This prevented the need for further court proceedings, because the goal was achieved.
“Subsequent similar cases ended in a similar manner: The defamatory blogs were shut down - but only after Google was served with a High Court order.”
Defamatory? These were accounts posted by victims of fraud.
Mr Cohen makes a meal of how one blogger used a false name “to hide his real identity”.
I don't blame anyone trying to hide from Wyvern: evidence collected by the Scambusters team showed how it sent heavies to collect money from reluctant payers who realised they were being scammed.
One businesswoman, who wants to remain anonymous, was stung for £3,500 and called the High Court action to silence critics a “scandalous use of the law”.
“The 2011 injunction had the effect of wiping out most of the critical references to them online while leaving their own lying web pages intact, thus helping them to continue defrauding people,” she said.
When she tried to sue in the small claims court to recover her money she was subjected to “a barrage of legalese...apparently only designed to intimidate us” from a second legal firm, and “delaying tactics to try and wear us down”.
More intimidation came when this set of lawyers said they would reclaim their costs from her, even though this rarely happens in small claims cases.
Eventually Wyvern repaid her in an out of court settlement.
Cohen now says that when he met Jonathan Rivers he found him “a very nice man”, and his conviction came as “a complete shock”.
“He ran a lot of companies, you get suspicous about that, but he had an explanation for everything,” said Cohen.
“Without hindsight it did not occur to me that anything like this was happening, you can only work with the evidence you have.
“We don't try to oppress people, but if people post anonymously we either say, tell us who you are so we can investigate or challenge it, or remove it, I don't think this is unreasonable.”
I do. Victims of scams are often terrified of the crooks who've fleeced them, they should be allowed to post their opinions without fearing that their identity might be revealed.