There is no universal formula for when and why an employee speaks out to the media. Workers sometimes turn to the press after attempts at raising serious concerns with management fall on deaf ears. Or, they may recognize that the only way they can create meaningful change is to risk their reputation for the sake of the greater good.
In the tech industry, people commonly blow the whistle to alert the public of some wrong a company is perpetrating against an employee or employees; for example, discrimination, worker abuse, or a toxic work environment. In other cases, they want to raise awareness of something a company is doing that has a negative impact on society; for example, corporate practices leading to anti-competitive markets, corruption in elections, or unfair bias in hiring or policing.
Here are a few examples of recent issues that have led people to whistleblow:
Discrimination or harassment
In February 2021, Vox Recode published a report on incidents of discrimination faced by Black employees at Amazon. Days later, Amazon employee Charlotte Newman filed a lawsuit against the tech giant and two top executives, citing race discrimination, sexual harassment, and pay inequity. Charlotte told Recode their investigation prompted her to speak publicly about her experience. In a USA Today story about the suit, her attorney said Charlotte refused to settle with Amazon because that would likely lead to a confidentiality clause, preventing her from speaking out. Charlotte has since publicly advocated for improved workplace protections, telling her story in an on-camera interview with WUSA9.
Corruption or ethical violations
In late 2020, Google researcher Timnit Gebru published a paper on ethical concerns of AI language models, which Google asked her to retract. When Timnit expressed frustration about this request in an email to company employees, Google terminated her employment. Timnit tweeted about her firing, which led to an interview with The New York Times — and eventually caught the attention of dozens of media outlets.
Security
When Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang first realized that international government leaders were using fake accounts on the platform to influence political outcomes around the globe, she raised concerns to management, who brushed off the matter due to “limited resources.” When Sophie persisted, Facebook fired her and offered a $64,000 severance package — which she refused in order to avoid signing a nondisclosure agreement (NDA).
Sophie wrote a 7,800-word internal “farewell memo” on her last day in September 2020 that blew the whistle on the platform; the memo was shared with BuzzFeed News and went viral on Reddit. After declining interview requests for months, Sophie first spoke on the record in a Guardian piece published in April 2021. She has since tweeted about her experiences working with the media and spoken directly with the public in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” thread.
