---
title: "The Double-Edged Sword of Hiding Controversial Information"
date: 2012-10-16
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canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2012/10/16/the-double-edged-sword-of-hiding-controversial-information/
---
# The Double-Edged Sword of Hiding Controversial Information
This dilemma seems like a darned-if-you-do, darned-if-you-don't situation. If you don't publish information about the topic, your readers might stumble onto information elsewhere for their education. That other information might not be the angle and slant you want to take. On the other hand, if you *do* publish information, you may invite your readers into areas of controversy that you would normally want to avoid. You may introduce your readers to all kinds of issues they never knew existed.

Working for a church makes me all too aware of situations like this. But the scenario certainly isn't unique to a church. Almost every company has its controversial areas. For example, when information came out about the sweatshops and poor working conditions of Chinese factory workers who make Apple products ([see this article](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-using-child-labour.html), for example), I'm sure this information wasn't the messaging that Apple wanted to communicate. Writing about it or not writing about it became a communications problem with no easy solution.

While in Portland last week, I wrestled with this dilemma a bit. My wife regularly reads a Mormon feminist site called [Mormon Feminist Housewives](http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/), or fMh for short. I ran into an fMh editor at the Lavacon conference, and she invited me to an fMh Portland meetup. It looked interesting.

The group was friendly and gave us a tour of downtown Portland. We ate at a local diner and walked to another place for ice cream. While chatting, I asked the group what the purpose of fMh was. They responded that fMh gives Mormon women a safe space to explore feminism topics within an LDS context. In non-Mormon spaces online, feminists would encourage Mormon women to abandon the faith wholesale. The fMh group doesn't advocate abandoning the faith, but rather gives people a sounding board and group to share information, ideas, and concerns about feminist topics — all within a faith-friendly environment.

I happen to be documenting a new search tool at my work, one that is quite slick and impressive. Curious, I searched for the word "feminism." Although it did return results, none were well-oriented for an fMh context. No articles seemed to address the concerns and issues in a candid, straightforward way. There aren't easily findable, authoritative articles on LDS.org for Mormon women to safely explore feminist topics and concerns.

This is a tough situation. Without the information, Mormon feminists turn to other sources. They may run across "competitor" sites that discourage membership in the Church altogether. If the information were available, Mormon feminists might be able to get "safe" information that helps ameliorate concerns. However, if authorities published extensive information on the topic, they would also bring awareness and attention to it. In fact, there's a whole public-relations dilemma surrounding controversy. Sometimes the more you address controversy, the bigger the controversy becomes (see [The Publicity Dilemma](http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/the-publicity-dilemma)). Although as a blogger I favor transparency and open information in dealing with controversial topics, I recognize the dilemma.

As a more technical example, just this week, one of our major apps recently had so many performance issues that we had to -- embarrassingly -- pull it from the app store. The product manager noted the app's absence in a forum post, but this kind of information is visible only to people who regularly read forum threads. We decided to also publish the information [in a blog post](http://tech.lds.org/blog/535-lds-tools-for-ios-temporarily-removed-from-app-store) to increase its visibility -- even though increased visibility will probably weaken our reputation and suggest instability with our apps.

For many people who have older versions of the app, who use it without issue, the news may not enhance their trust with the product. They may read the article and raise an eyebrow, thinking twice about downloading any more apps. But for those who are having issues, the news helps them understand what's going on.

At a previous job in Clearwater, Florida, I worked for a health and nutrition company run by Scientologists. The company founder had some negative press due to an incident in which the founder prescribed medicine to a patient he never saw, and then the patient died. The press (unsympathetic to Scientologists in the first place) ate this up and ruined the doctors' reputation.