Blowing the Whistle in the New Age of Big Data

In recent years there have been several high-profile cases of whistleblowing, including the case of Christopher Wylie, who in 2018 reported publicly that his employer, Cambridge Analytica, had misused Facebook data to help political campaigns. Whistleblowing, of course, has been around for some time. But is there something different about whistleblowing in today's age of big data?

A 2019 article in Politics & Society answers yes. The article, which is by Thomas Olesen, a professor of political science at Aarhus University, argues that big data and digitalization are changing the nature of whistleblowing from a solitary action to one involving a collaboration between whistleblowers themselves, investigative journalists, and political activists. Collaboration has become vital because, as Olesen writes, "the sheer volume of the [data] and its raw and undigested content make its full use beyond the capacity of any single journalist or even media organization." Two generations ago, a single, printed document was usually leaked; in contrast, today's leaks involve data access, distribution, and storage.

Olesen says that today's whistleblowing is usually preceded by a major shift in the loyalties of the whistleblower. Rather than feeling mostly loyal to her employer, the whistleblower develops a stronger loyalty to the "universal community of society and democracy." In short, the whistleblower decides that the greater good is more important than her own security and comfort.

Olesen predicts that with continuing advances in digital technology, whistleblowers are likely to play "an increasingly pronounced political role." Governments and corporations are now far more vulnerable to embarrassing or damaging data leaks, and it stands to reason that they will seek to protect themselves in ways that might put democracy at risk.

Olesen's article, which is titled "The Politics of Whistleblowing in Digitalized Societies," appears in the June 2019 issue of Politics & Society.