Why in the world would one expect the more charitable scenario?
It's not necessarily what will prove true at the end of the day but I think we owe people the presumption of innocence.
But when it comes to specific questions that hinge on evidence, I think you have to maintain the typical presumption of innocence, just to balance out the possibilities of mob psychology getting out of control.
No, you do not owe "corporations, especially those with a tendency, incentive, and history of being ruthless in this way."
Wise up, people.
It's like, the people dropping leaflets in your physical mailbox are delivering spam, but you wouldn't automatically assume those same people are also trying to scam you and your neighbors by delivering you physical letters meant to trick people into parting with their savings. In both cases, the messages are spam, but one is legal, other is not, and there's a huge gap between them.
Those of us accusing and talking about it have no power -- thus there is literally no harm, and possible good in, putting them on the defense about this.
edit: In fact, the First Amendment of the Constitution essentially directly upholds the idea of "people saying whatever they want" in this regard.
People don't need to be careful just talking; in fact we generally support the idea of "people saying whatever" in the form of the First Amendment.