Technorati accused of blog censorship
Niall Kennedy, Community Relations Manager from Technorati has allegedly been ordered to take a blog post down that satirised the fight between Corporations and employee blogs.
According to Jason Kottke, he replaced the post with the following message:
“Technorati would rather I did not express an opinion on issues such as corporate blogging policies that are affecting the world of weblogs. This post has been overwritten and my artwork posted to Flickr is now marked as private and available only to Flickr contacts marked as friends.
Yes, I was threatened with “serious consequences” for not seeking corporate approval for a weblog posting relating to an industry issue. Tomorrow will undoubtedly bring many conversations about if employees are allowed to have their own voice and write weblog entries without passing through an executive mouthpiece first.
It should be interesting. A blogging company applying strong filters to employee weblogs about public issues that affect the community.
If my original post is not up for a while, you will know how things turned out. I love the industry and writing about weblogs, technology, and search and hope to continue to share my personal point of view in the future.”
At the time of writing the original post has returned (without images) and Kennedy writes at Buzzhit: “Technorati executives are concerned about how employee weblogs expressing opinions may be interpreted as an official Technorati position. All Technorati employees have been asked to review weblog posts with staff members before posting. I reinstated my original post this morning and I am ready to willing to hear the community’s response to my individual voice. I hope to continue to share my passion for the industry through my weblog without editorial oversight.”
We say: Sifry, say it isn’t so!
A company that monitors blogs for a living should know better than to order down a post from an employee’s blog. We don’t deny them the right to expect employee’s to be sensitive in what they post when they are publicly identified as employees, however to censor an employee’s blog after publication, if true, only goes to demonstrate that even the most blog-savvy company needs a strong employee blogging policy.