Yes, such videos have a huge impact on reputation. The viral video will be seen by many, if not thousands and even millions of people, as it is easily shared via social media, hashtags, blogs, and other platforms.

In terms of businesses, it can harm their image, destroy the trust of clients, bring negative publicity, and decrease sales. The viral video may change public perception about the company forever. Viral videos for individual people are harmful because they may affect their careers, family relations, and professional success, even if the videos are uploaded years ago and even if they are misunderstood by people.

One of the most serious problems with viral videos is the fact that they do not appear only on a particular website. Viral videos are usually republished on different sites, thus becoming hard to remove completely from the internet. Besides, if you have managed to delete them, the images or comments about videos will appear in search engines’ results.

Yet, reputational harm does not necessarily need to be irreversible. This is where online reputation management comes into play, helping people and organizations to restore their reputations through enhancing their positive search presence, removing damaging information from the internet, and rebuilding their reputation online. It is even possible to make sure that harmful videos rank less high on the Google search engine.

The sooner it is done, the better. Professional handling of the problem is the best way to deal with viral videos found online.