‘Welcome to the party’: five past tech whistleblowers on the pitfalls of speaking out

Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, joined a growing list of Silicon Valley former employees to call out company policies

When Frances Haugen revealed she was the Facebook whistleblower who supplied internal documents to Congress and the Wall Street Journal, she joined a growing list of current and former Silicon Valley employees who've come forward to call out military contracts, racism, sexism, contributions to climate crisis, pay disparities and more in the industry.

In the past days, the Guardian spoke with five former employees of Amazon, Google, and Pinterest who've spoken out about their companies' policies. The conversations revealed Haugen's experience has been singular in some respects. Few of them received the international praise bestowed upon her. Some of them said they have faced termination, retaliation, harassment and prolonged litigation.