On some level I suppose you can’t argue with this news item all about the corporate compliance and risk management issues associated with social media. But it makes me sick. Why? Because it is exactly this sort of heavy-handed, copy controlling, monitoring, editing, polishing, and b.s.-rendering corporate system that led to social media in the first place. Now that the lawyers, pencil sharpeners, and hired spokespeople who actually never say anything have killed the press release, sterilized the briefing, and sanitized corporate statements to the point of falling somewhere between meaningless and ridiculous, they’re coming after our conversations.

Please don’t write to me here about disclosure and forward-looking statements and public company responsibilities. I know all about it. I also know that for all the rigorous, traditional oversight built in to the corporate system for the past 50 years, some corporations still manage to lie… to mislead… to concoct, corrupt, contaminate and contort the truth. Internal social media oversight systems aren’t going to catch or stop corporate liars. Social media is going to catch, expose and ultimately stop corporate liars.

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