[tgsovlerkhgsel]

Coercion/blackmail is going to be hard to argue when you've never asked the company for anything, nor made any offer that would involve them giving you anything.

I consider going public directly less risky than talking to the company first: They're much more likely to make legal threats/try to sue you if they think it can help hide their embarrassment. Once public, that incentive goes away, they're in the public eye, if they do go after you they can no longer prevent the disclosure, and you have a decent chance that the additional attention this generates will make them reconsider before you have to spend money on lawyers.