Whistleblower Quotes

“Fear has always been a very important whistleblower. Our emotion and our history can provoke fear that may arrest us at any time or at any place. Above and beyond, fear might be contagious and its scent, sometimes sensual, sometimes mystical or animal, can exude the musty and arcane smell of destiny. ("One could still feel the smell of fear" )”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Let us recognize the ethical significance of whistle-blowers, the sentinels of truth and justice, who guide society through the perils of ignorance and ensure that freedom remains grounded in transparency. ("Alert. High noon.")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Serving my country does not mean blindly following others.”
― Pénélope Bagieu, Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World

“[From a May 1, 2004 article entitled "Still Up to Mischief" from The Guardian reporting on and quoting Altman]

Still, it's worth noting that by the age of 20 this whistle- blower had resisted two of the most powerful institutions - church and army, both. He is an atheist, 'And I have been against all of these wars ever since.”
― Robert Altman

“Every country needs its whistleblowers. They are crucial to a healthy society. The employee who, in the public interest, has the independence of judgement and the personal courage to challenge malpractice or illegality is a kind of public hero.”
― Fuad Alakbarov

“The expectation at Facebook is that mothering is invisible, and the more skilled you are, the more invisible it is.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“The notion that we have to choose between civil liberties, and national security is a disgrace. A country that wants a democracy must accept transparency”
― Pénélope Bagieu, Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World

“There has never been a more necessary time for law enforcement officers who reveal misconduct to be protected. By rising to uphold our Nation's values, ethical law enforcement officers choose a conflict for which no education, experience, or training can prepare them. They discover their communities breached and their opponent already beyond their gates. They confront criminals, intimidators, and tyrants that disguise themselves wearing the same badge they hold so dear. They advance against others who would otherwise seek to abuse the public, control the narrative, investigate themselves or obscure the truth beneath a facade of pursuing the greater good. Afterward, they often find themselves cast out, lost, and silenced permanently from their profession for doing nothing more than what we asked of them: Policing.”
― Austin Handle

“A question was a sign of insanity to them.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“When yous say 'adversary,' who do you mean?" I raise my hand and ask tentatively, a little concerned about what will happen to anyone on one of these lists.
"Anyone who opposes us is an adversary," Mark responds firmly. Not acknowledging that when it comes to Free Basics, that's basically everyone. All I can think is how horrified politicians would be if they knew Facebook was harnessing the platform and its power to put the screws to their thumbs.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“Vaughan operates in a different way from me and most of the policy team. He decides to crack the China market with his golf clubs, sending updates about whom he has golfed with and how this might lead to opportunities to meet with key government officials. The actual work, preparing briefings, tracking regulations, or analysing political developments, he delegates to interns, or the women who work for him.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“Mark's expecting his first child, and he tells us he might not be present for the birth. As the only person who's birthed a baby, I'm stunned. And genuinely curious. "What would you be doing instead?" I asked him. Like, what in the world could possibly be more meaningful to him than the birth of his first child? He had no idea. Just "something more important might come up.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“We're about to travel to the one country in the world where there's an open arrest warrant for Mark Zuckerberg. And Mark thinks this is the time to show us his fake gangsta handshakes.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“Five years earlier when I arrived at Facebook, Mark didn't have a theory of how he and the company should be in the world; he didn't really have developed opinions about policy or politics, beyond "sign up more users." The rest of Facebook's leadership wasn't very different. Mark really couldn't be bothered to care. Now he's developed priorities, and they're mostly pretty horrible and ignorant of the human costs.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“Irrespective, he blames other people for all of those things, including forgetting his passport. I guess that's what it's like to live in a bubble, like Mark does. But a bubble implies flimsy transparency, a diaphanous space where you can see a normal life just beyond your grasp. And what Mark inhabits is more like a thick opaque dome, a murky fortress that separates him from the rest of the world. When you have so many other people doing things for you professionally and personally, you stop taking responsibility for any of it. Max Weber said that dealing with unintended consequences of your actions is what political responsibility is. This guy can't even take responsibility for leaving his passport at home, let alone influencing the US election.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“Like many things at Facebook, it didn't matter what the policy team debated or decided; it mattered what Sheryl thought. In this case she had run into one of her Harvard friends, a surgical director of liver transplantation, at a Harvard reunion and offered to help him source donors.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“He's in charge of Facebook's global growth. His growth team is the capitalist engine of the whole enterprise. Facebook's business model depends on it conquering new territories. Expanding exponentially.
The growth team is in charge of forging those new frontiers, and like more frontiersmen, Javi and his team play fast and loose. They're aggressive and quick to stake their claim, always looking for opportunities in the gray area created by the lack of regulation.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“Either way, I think the point at which you have to explain Nuremburg to the head of the team leading your China entry is probably a red flag.”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“What bosses don’t understand is that whistle-blowers don’t call reporters first. They call us last. Only when they are completely disillusioned by the knowledge that going through the system doesn’t work do they turn to us: the media.”
― Julie Kramer, Stalking Susan

“They can take your gun and they can take your badge. They can never take away the fact that you are a cop. You just chose to police the police.”
― Austin Handle

“It is President Trump’s destiny to be remembered as an accused secret thief by the USA government.”
― Steven Magee

“President Trump appears to be the new Bradley Manning!”
― Steven Magee

“I have President Trump in the same classification as Bradley Manning.”
― Steven Magee

“President Trump appears to be the new Julian Assange.”
― Steven Magee

“President Trump appears to be the new Edward Snowden.”
― Steven Magee

“You cannot find a Tyrant that trusts in the Enlightenment, rules without Chains and Executioners, hates the Whistleblowers, and demolishes Dungeons; on the contrary, the Tyrant's order relies on them.”
― Jeyhun Aliyev Silo, To Be Tried As A Jew

“I am a professional whistleblower!”
― Steven Magee

“

"When yous say 'adversary,' who do you mean?" I raise my hand and ask tentatively, a little concerned about what will happen to anyone on one of these lists.

"Anyone who opposes us is an adversary," Mark responds firmly. Not acknowledging that when it comes to Free Basics, that's basically everyone. All I can think is how horrified politicians would be if they knew Facebook was harnessing the platform and its power to put the screws to their thumbs.

”
― Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

“When truth only emerges after power fades,
it is not conviction—it is convenience.
Silence in privilege, and noise in rejection,
is not principle—it’s manipulation.

Thus, we must always question
the sincerity of those who suddenly find their voice
only after losing proximity to power.
For such a late awakening
smells more of selfishness
than of selflessness.”
― Aloo Denish Obiero

“Group minds are a result of collective discussion and working out of a consensus, which can be listened to (unlike an unreadable mind). Arriving at a common program of action often leaves physical traces, such as meeting minutes and programmatic documents. Of course, some groups are quite secretive about their inner decision-making processes. Here’s where
whistleblowers like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden become essential for a sociologist of power.”
― Peter Turchin, End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration