According to BoingBoing, close to two dozen companies (yes, some are brand names) have fired or punished employees for blogging. Get the list here. Includes Delta Air Lines, Wells Fargo, Starbucks, The Houston Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nunavut Tourism, , the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, Harvard University, Maricopa County Superior Court of Arizona Self Help Center and Library, Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio, (he fired the Washingtonienne), ESPN, Minnesota Public Radio, Friendster, International Olympic Committee (banned bloggers) and the NBA (National Basketball Association)- Mark Cuban’s blog. I added the links to the specific instances I know about. Do you know of others? Please comment below if you can add a link. As to what this all means…
Too many disparate examples to say. In some cases, the employee stepped so far out of bounds that it’s laughable (er, the Washingtonienne who worked for Sen. DeWine). In others, the companies or organizations may be overly concerned with controlling their message and/or protecting their brand. I don’t want to sound like I don’t suppport the rights of bloggers (cuz I do). But I’d like to know much more about each of these cases before saying that corporate or mainstream America is muzzling free expression by its employees.
