Accountability in a wired age
We’re barely in the beginning stages of a fundamental transformation in which corporate executives live with the reality constantly in the back of their mind that any particular cutting of corners on safety or customer service, any particular downsizing or speedup, any grinding of the boot into the faces of labor, will show up on WikiLeaks. And then become the focus of a campaign of boycotts, picketing and letter-writing organized by some advocacy group like the Wal-Mart Workers’ Association or EmployerNameSucks.com.
What’s more, they’re only beginning to learn that every attempt to suppress such campaigns with SLAPP lawsuits and punitive firing will come back to bite them in the tuchus in the form of the Streisand Efffect. This last was named for Barbra Streisand’s attempt to suppress online photos of her house – which itself became a news event that attracted tens of millions more eyeballs to the photos.</em>
