No. In fact, that wasn’t what at all I was trying to say. In fact, it’s about giving them bad PR and to embarrass them into action.

Post #76743:
“Companies have become increasingly sensitive to criticisms coming from bloggers and commenters who have shamed them to change their ways and what not.”

Oh, they do. Not all of them though. I personally know this to be a fact in one case I’m personally familiar with but won’t elaborate.

Instead, let’s look at the case of one blog against Microsoft on the case of China’s censorship.

Blog censorship: Within a month of MSN China’s rolling out its Chinese portal, Microsoft came under criticism from the press and bloggers (both Chinese and Western) for censoring words such as “democracy” and “freedom” in the titles of its Chinese blogs.90 Meanwhile, testing of the service in December showed that censorship of MSN Spaces Chinese blogs had been extended beyond titles of the full blogs to the titles of individual blog posts themselves. As shown in Fig. 6, testing also showed that while sensitive words such as “Tibet independence” and “Falungong” (the banned religious group) could be posted in the body of blog posts, use of such words would cause the entire blog to be shut down within days, by Microsoft staff on Microsoft servers.91

The extent of MSN Spaces censorship created an uproar after the popular blog of Zhao Jing, writing under the pseudonym Michael Anti, was shut down on December 30, 2005.92 In 2005 Zhao had become one of China’s edgiest journalistic bloggers, often pushing at the boundaries of what is acceptable. He had started blogging on MSN Spaces in August 2005 after his original blog hosted by the Scotland-based company Blog-City.com was blocked by Chinese Internet service providers. In December Zhao used his blog to speak out when propaganda authorities cracked down on Beijing News, a relatively new tabloid with a national reputation for exposing corruption and official abuse. The editor and deputy editors were fired and more than one hundred members of the newspaper’s staff walked out in protest. Zhao covered the crackdown extensively on his MSN Spaces blog, discussing behind-the-scenes developments, supported the walkout and called for a reader boycott of the newspaper. Microsoft told the New York Times that MSN Spaces staff deleted Zhao’s blog “after Chinese authorities made a request through a Shanghai-based affiliate of the company.”93

Microsoft’s response: Public outcry and criticism of Microsoft’s action was so strong in the United States that by late January 2006 Microsoft decided to alter its Chinese blog censorship policy.94 Called to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives in February to explain its collaboration with Chinese government censorship requirements, Microsoft outlined the following efforts at transparency while still complying with Chinese censorship requirements:

First, explicit standards for protecting content access: Microsoft will remove access to blog content only when it receives a legally binding notice from the government indicating that the material violates local laws, or if the content violates MSN’s terms of use.

Second, maintaining global access: Microsoft will remove access to content only in the country issuing the order. When blog content is blocked due to restrictions based on local laws, the rest of the world will continue to have access. This is a new capability Microsoft is implementing in the MSN Spaces infrastructure
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/5.htm

The power of blogging. Don’t under-estimate it.

It’s not “Blog” enough.

Sounds familiar tho.