Tech whistleblowing to ring in real change?

Whistleblower Frances Haugen says she hates attention so much she stopped throwing birthday parties years ago. She never wanted the world to know her name. And the idea of stepping in front of thousands of people gives her anxiety.

And yet, the data scientist decided to give up her anonymity to expose wrongdoing at tech giant Facebook, she told some 20,000 visitors during the opening night of the WebSummit technology conference this week in Lisbon. “I learned things that, I believe, put lives at jeopardy,” Haugen said, detailing how during the nearly two years she worked at the company, she saw how the platform repeatedly prioritised divisive content because it was more profitable.

Facebook, which recently changed the name of its parent company to Meta, has rejected her accusations, arguing that the thousands of internal documents she unearthed paint a false picture of its inner workings. But the revelations have thrown the firm under some of the most intense scrutiny in its 16-year history — and they have prompted new calls to better regulate the tech industry. The question now is if those calls will lead to lasting change and that will not be up to whistleblowers but policymakers, Haugen’s attorney cautioned.

“Once those disclosures are out there, it is the job of other people to take them and make sure that there is accountability,” John Tye, the founder of Washington-based non-profit Whistleblower Aid, told DW at the WebSummit. His client is the latest in a row of employees who have come forward to expose wrongdoing in the tech industry — despite the risks that come with taking on multi-billion corporations, and the prospect of being blacklisted in an industry where networking is important.

Other whistleblowers have included Timnit Gebru, a former AI ethics researcher at Google; Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, previously employees with Amazon; and former Apple contractor Thomas le Bonniec. Their rising number has led some observers to speak of an “era of tech whistleblowing.” But although their disclosures have, to varying degrees, raised attention beyond the tech world, most of them have fizzled without having any real legal impact. Frances Haugen’s attorney Tye — himself a whistleblower, who in 2014 disclosed electronic surveillance practices by the US State Department — cautioned that before new laws can be passed, a better understanding of the issues needs to develop both among the general public and policymakers.

Another tech industry insider who knows a thing or two about this issue is Brittany Kaiser (inset). Kaiser became known in 2018 when she released documents revealing how her former employer, consultancy Cambridge Analytica, had harvested the information of millions of Facebook users to sway elections from Trinidad and Tobago to the US. The disclosure set off a furore, with policymakers around the world demanding an end to the business model.

But three and a half years later, many firms still use similar strategies to profile social media users and influence their voting decisions. “Instead of one Cambridge Analytica, there are now hundreds of Cambridge Analyticas,” Kaiser said in an interview with DW. And yet, she is convinced that her disclosures have helped boost attention for online privacy and data protection.

“I don’t only believe that what I did was worth it, but I think it was essential to take a hold of the public zeitgeist,” Kaiser said. “I would do it again — but I would do it earlier.”