Muzzling is not a Social Media Strategy

I came across a disturbing little story on Boing Boing today about how some doctors are trying to get patients to sign away their rights to post reviews of their practices on services like Yelp and RateItAll in order to get medical treatment:

Over 2,000 US doctors have joined a service that supplies them with EULAs for their patients to sign, EULAs that forbid the patients from writing bad reviews of their treatment online.

The guy behind this initiative is a neurosurgeon from North Carolina named Doctor Jeffrey Segal.  From Yahoo:

Segal said such postings say nothing about what should really matter to patients — a doctor's medical skills — and privacy laws and medical ethics prevent leave doctors powerless to do anything it.

His company, Medical Justice, is based in Greensboro, N.C. For a fee, it provides doctors with a standardized waiver agreement. Patients who sign agree not to post online comments about the doctor, "his expertise and/or treatment."

"Published comments on Web pages, blogs and/or mass correspondence, however well intended, could severely damage physician's practice," according to suggested wording the company provides.

Segal's company advises doctors to have all patients sign the agreements. If a new patient refuses, the doctor might suggest finding another doctor. Segal said he knows of no cases where longtime patients have been turned away for not signing the waivers.

This is not the first time that we've seen the establishment try and muzzle the social web.  Governments in places like Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey, and Thailand have long tried to silence dissidents by arresting or shutting down dissenting voices.

But this is the first time I've seen access to medical treatment linked to a forfeiture of one's right to post negative reviews.

I don't think this strategy will work, I don't think it scales, and I suspect that there are enough doctors out there happily willing to accept a little feedback in order snap up patients who don't feel like forfeiting their freedom of speech.

If only Dr Segal and his 2,000 physicians would exert the same effort in maximizing the value of online reviews.  Perhaps they could learn a little bit from San Francisco Pizzeria Delfina, who is embracing their negative reviews.

From Ars Tecnica:

Review sites will only continue to increase in popularity—though potential customers should always take what they read online with a grain of salt. Instead of fighting the trend, doctors need to embrace the new reality and maybe even use the reviews as an opportunity to improve themselves.

(also see Futurismic)