Free Speech vs. Your Business

We're familiar with the growing threat of data leaks - sensitive and confidential information like credit card numbers, passwords, financial information, etc. that exits companies unencrypted or unmonitored through email, Web 2.0 applications or instant messaging tools.

But what about the stuff that doesn't rise to the level of a data leak, but that can still prove very damaging to your company?

What I'm referring to is content that your employees might send out using social networking or other tools that could come back to bite your company. For example, someone at a company that I follow on Twitter (not a client of Osterman Research) yesterday tweeted a link to a very derogatory blog post about the CEO of a major software company, and tweeted this under the name of their employer. The blog post discussed the eternal fate of this CEO, implied he probably had multiple mistresses, and expressed the view that he looks like the "child of Karl Rove and Stewie from Family Guy". Not very complimentary stuff no matter how tongue-in-cheek might have been the intent of the author.

Now, imagine you're a salesperson or CMO or CEO of the company that employs the Twitter poster and you're trying to work a deal with the company whose CEO was denigrated in the blog post. At best, it might be embarrassing and at worst it might kill a potential deal. In any case, it's not the kind of thing that most people would like added to the mix in the negotiation process.

This raises the question of the balance that companies need to achieve between the free speech rights of their employees, the value that they derive from letting employees use tools like Twitter and Facebook, and the potentially negative consequences from unfettered discussion in public forums.

Your thoughts?