Increased Public Awareness
Almost on yearly basis, there is a major whistleblowing case – LuxLeaks (2014), Dieselgate (2015), Panama Papers (2016), Cambridge Analytica (2018), Pandora Papers (2021) – to name some examples. Allegations concerned a wide variety of important issues such as integrity of democratic elections, data protection, privacy, discrimination, worker rights, online safety, disinformation, and unfair competition. The common pattern of these whistleblowing cases has been shedding light to abuses of power that would have otherwise remained under the veil of secrecy. Moreover, some of the cases showed that high ranking officials were involved or aware of the abuses of power, leading the public to question the effectiveness of institutional checks. In light of these cases, there has been a growing understanding by the general public of the unique value of whistleblowing and increasingly, albeit very slowly, public opinion is moving away from questioning the intentions or motives of the whistleblowers with the intention to discredit them, and rather acknowledge the revelations as essential for accountability.  

Right Timing
In addition to the increase of awareness for the benefits of whistleblowing, there has also been an increase of scrutiny and public awareness of harms caused by tech companies. Particularly tech whistleblowers raising their concerns has drawn more attention by putting forward serious allegations about the abuses of giants like Facebook, Google, Apple, Pinterest, Amazon. Whether on data breaches, privacy violations, issues with online safety and well-being of minors, unfair competition charges, and content moderation, a multitude of problems must be addressed in the regulation of social media. Platform’s users frustrated by Cambridge Analytica/Facebook breach created #DeleteFacebook calling people to delete their accounts. The company postponed Instagram Kids service in the face of criticism by policymakers, child safety groups and consumer rights groups. Snapchat, TikTok, and Youtube sought to convince law-makers in the U.S. Congress that they are nothing like Facebook. In light of these developments, Frances Haugen’s whistleblowing arrived at the right time and provided the information of what both the public and legislators suspected: better accountability is needed for Facebook.

New Legal Protections
The increased public awareness of whistleblowing as a positive and welcome instrument of accountability has in turn impacted the legal reform in this domain. In the past five years, there is an increase of legislation on protection of whistleblowers in many countries around the world. In the context of the EU, the EU Whistleblower Directive adopted in 2019, seeks to be a ‘game changer’ for better protection of whistleblowers across the EU. The Directive draws from best practices in many respects, including a broad definition of who can be a whistleblower, covers a wide range of policy areas, and extends protections to both the public and private sectors. The deadline for the national transposition of the Directive has now passed, however only a handful of Member States have actually implemented the rules. The missing legal and organizational culture for protection of whistleblowers will remain a challenge in practice, however it is a welcome development that legal standards for whistleblowers are adopted at the EU level. In the upcoming period, Member States must speed up the transposition process and ensure that they meet their EU law obligation to adequately transpose the Directive into national law.

Looking Ahead  
Frances Haugen blew the whistle at a time when the public has a better understanding of whistleblowing, knows the risks and harms caused by Facebook, and in a global setting of a growing legal consensus that whistleblowers should be legally protected. These factors are essential to the acceptance of Haugen’s whistleblowing not only as necessary, but also as a legitimate accountability tool. Looking forward, these factors will remain relevant to positively impact whistleblowing. Nevertheless, as Part I of this blog showed, having an organized revelation strategy plays a major role in not only how the public perceive and the effectiveness of whistleblowing, but essentially in what the experience and the challenges will be for the whistleblower herself. In this respect, it is noteworthy that for most whistleblowers creating a well-financed campaign, global support system of civil society and law-makers, and overall a successful revelation strategy would be extremely challenging and too demanding for them to come forward with the disclosure. Therefore, as a society, we have to continue working toward creating better conditions where speaking up is supported and whistleblowers can rely on being listened to as well as have adequate follow up for their revelations.