Blog #8: EOTO 2

 Before doing research for my topic, I had no idea what whistleblowing was; in fact, I had never heard the term whistleblower before. So what exactly is it? Below is a brief lesson on whistleblowing:  

What is Whistleblowing & what do they do? 

The Federal Trade Commission defines whistleblowers as “Whistleblowers play a critical role in keeping our Government honest, efficient, and accountable. Recognizing whistleblowers’ important role, Federal law provides strong protections for them. The protections and remedies for these whistleblowers vary depending on whether the individual is a Federal employee or an employee of a Federal contractor, subcontractor, grantee, or subgrantee.” In simpler terms, it is when a current or former employee finds things such as secrets, lies, or dishonesty within an organization, and the person reports to authorities, and most importantly, they report to the public about information from the government. 

Whistleblowers are a big issue for the United States government and have created trust issues between  citizens and the government. The government wants to do anything possible to try and prevent this, as they obviously do not want their information brought out into the public, let alone information for the whole world to see now with the ability to gain anything from the web. Whistleblowers are essentially a major red flag for the government. 

What do they report? 

Whistleblowers will typically report things such as abuse of power, lawbreaking information, fraud, policy corruption, embezzlement, and many other things that are important for the public to know. 

Who is Edward Snowden? 

Edward Snowden is one of the most famous and recent cases of whistleblowing. Snowden worked as an IT systems expert and held a contract for the National Security Agency. In 2013, Snowden met up with three journalists and provided them with thousands of top secret documents about the US intelligence agencies surveillance of American citizens. 

He considers himself a whistleblower; however, the government considers him a traitor in violation of the Espionage Act. After his actions, he obviously wanted to avoid the United States because he was considered a “traitor,” so he fled to Russia. In Russia, he was detained for 40 days while negotiating asylum in various countries. Asylum is the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee. He was denied by 27 nations. 

Edward Snowden remains in Russia today and has mentioned that he has no regrets about releasing the information. He has a goal of eventually coming back to the United States one day, but the government is waiting for the day he returns because they basically want to throw him in jail. So it will be interesting to see if he ever returns what will happen. 

Another famous whistleblower I quickly wanted to mention is Daniel Ellsberg. He was responsible for what was known as the Pentagon Papers, which revealed detailed information about the United States overall political and military involvement in Vietnam from the end of World War II and the Vietnam  War and Cold War. If you're interested in learning more about the Pentagon Papers, check out this video below! 

Pros & Cons of Whistleblowing: 

While researching, I found a few pros and cons to the effects of whistleblowing. Starting with the pros, you’re making the right choice when exposing dishonesty hidden by the government or organizations; you could possibly earn financial awards from winning lawsuits; and you help raise awareness among the public by providing the truth and showing what it's like to be a whistleblower. Negative effects, though, are having a negative impact on your career as a whistleblower. One of the most common things is that whistleblowers will almost always try to seek revenge. You could also get denied by other employers because of the known label of being a whistleblower.