I Spy A Lie?

Skimming Cone's new 2009 Consumer New Media Study, I'm intrigued that 47% of us "think companies are transparent and honest when it comes to talking about their corporate responsibility efforts using new media."

Is the glass half-empty or half-full? One the one hand, this only confirms a widespread understanding that the public is suspicious of the private sector. But I would have expected much worse; I was pleasantly surprised that the trust level is as high as it is. The web has created a trend towards transparency in corporate communications, and I think the public is catching on.

Our team at Citizens Market often fields questions from folks concerned that corporations will "game" our crowdsourced information on corporate behavior by spreading lies about their company on our website. Certainly "gaming" is a real risk for which our community must be vigilant. Our main defense will be our community's ability to sniff out truth from falsehood as they apply peer ratings to reviews of corporate behavior. We'll also be exploring technical solutions, such as tracking the connection between our users' IP addresses and corporate IP addresses. (A neat example of this is Wikiscanner. Let us know if you have other ideas!)

But if gaming is a risk for us at Citizens Market, it's an even bigger risk for any company that tries it. False public statements by corporations can have tremendous negative consequences for their brand and legal liability. In a landmark case in 1998, Kasky v Nike, California's Supreme Court ruled that Nike had engaged in false advertising by publicly denying the media's allegations of abominable working conditions for Nike's overseas suppliers. Nike ended up settling for $1.5 million.

It would be a categorically dumb move for a company to deliberately spread lies within our system or any other social media outlet. Any minor potential gains would be massively outweighed by certain negative media and potential legal consequences if such villainy comes to light. And the web is making it easier and easier to nab such a villain. Whistleblowers, muckrakers and hackers, oh my!

Of course, companies are run by people and sometimes people make very dumb moves. E.g., Enron. More often, we grapple with the blurred edges between dubious information and an outright lie.

What do you think? Over time are you more or less trusting of what companies say about themselves online?

- Stephane