Whistleblower Aid
Overview
Whistleblower Aid's landmark work with Frances Haugen and the Facebook Files reverberated throughout the world, changing the global narratives around social media companies and bringing unprecedented levels of scrutiny to the impacts they have on society.
Parents learned about the negative mental health impacts of social media on teens and the complicity of social media companies, despite their research into those harms. Governments learned how opaque and unaccountable many aspects of these billion-dollar companies really were, and became smarter about how to regulate major platforms.
Privacy and data security came under renewed scrutiny, which was further amplified by their work last summer with Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, the former Security Lead for Twitter who blew the whistle on more than a decade of hiding vast data security lapses from users and regulators. High-profile hearings were held in Congress and parliaments around the world, and social media companies across the sector began to roll out corrective actions to address these issues.
Since 2017, Whistleblower Aid has supported dozens of whistleblowers across the government, national security, big tech, academia and large corporations, helping them hold the powerful to account. Their unique model of pro bono legal representation supported by robust advocacy, communications and holistic support for the individual makes them an effective and impactful advocate for public interest whistleblowers.
Whistleblower Aid's Libby Liu and Naomi Seligman accepted the award and gave a case study keynote presentation at ComNet23 in Atlanta.
Quote from the keynote speech
“Whistleblowers have driven some of the most important changes in history, from climate change to nicotine addiction to abuses in our world's most powerful institutions.”
— Naomi Seligman, Whistleblower Aid
Watch the keynote
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