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Rita van Haren
Jennifer Hernandez
Grant St. Martin
Cody Bryant-Zygowski 
Justin Bernard
Stacie Bernasconi
Jonna Elvin
Laurel Poff
Jennifer GuerreroWin18_Phil302 Cyberethics’s Updates
Lesson 9: Whistleblowing in the age of Wikileaks
Module 6 Whistleblowing, Lesson 9-- Whistleblowing in the age of Wikileaks
Assignment 14: Before you get started on this lesson, please take the midterm survey that your instructor has assigned you on Scholar. This midterm will cover information from lessons 1-8. When you are done you may start on this lesson.
Whistleblowing in the age of Wikileaks
When it is ethically required that you expose the wrong doings of your colleagues or even your employer? Let’s hope you never have to make that decision in your professional career, but if you ever do, it will be helpful to have spent some time now deciding on an answer. In most of the case studies we have looked at in the course so far and that we will look at later are based on information leaked to authorities and watchdog groups by whistleblowers. A whistleblower is a person inside an organization who exposes illegal, dishonest, or suspect information or activities of that same organization, be it a public or private entity. A person who exposes this same kind of information from outside the organization committing the action is usually called a “watchdog.” Whistleblowers are in very compromising position as they will almost certainly alienate their coworkers and lose their job. If the whistleblower is calling out their own country, they may face charges of treason with jail, banishment, or capital punishment as their reward. Due to the social value of whistleblowing for the safety of consumers and the general public, there are some who work tirelessly to legally protect these people when they come forward. In the next lesson we will look at some case studies of modern whistleblowers but right now we will focus on what makes whistleblowing different in the digital age. For instance, do sites like WikiLeaks make it easier for whistleblowers to expose wrongdoing without having to suffer the serious consequences?
Whistleblowing in the Modern Workplace
Please read Rethinking whistleblowing in the digital age and this article on whistleblowing in modern sports in the age of the internet. Then read this article on hacking and whistleblowing .
When is it right to turn in your own Government?
Julian Assange believes he has made the world much safer for whistleblowers everywhere. Ironically, this move may have cost him his freedom, as he remains trapped in the embassy of Ecuador in London. He has been granted asylum in Ecuador but if he leaves the embassy to travel there he will be arrested by British authorities and extradited to Sweden for alleged sexual offenses. You can read some of the complicated story here. He still lives a rich life on the internet and is the editor in chief of the WikiLeaks website along with other publishing activities.
Please watch this video where Assange explains why the world needs WikiLeaks.
Assignment 15: Writing reflection (200-400 words) posted to the comments section below—What is whistleblowing? Why or why don’t you agree with Julian Assange on the value of anonymous whistleblowing? Pick one of the examples from the articles we read, or one you may know of in your own life, do you think the situation was resolved ethically? If so explain why and if not argue your conclusion. In both cases use the theories we have learned in this class.
Assignment #15
According to Wikipedia, a whistleblower is someone who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical or not correct within an organization that is either private or public. I agree with Julian Assange of the value of anonymous whistleblowing from what I have come to understand about him and what his duty was. I know the government hides and sensors out a lot of information that think we do not need to know. Although sometimes it may be for the greater good of society so that everyone does not “freak out” over some information. I do believe that a lot of the information hidden should be shared and I admire Julian Assange and Wikileaks for doing so. The issue that it should be anonymous is where I still stand in the middle. Although it provides the source with protection to share their knowledge, not knowing the source can also damage how valuable the information being shared is. Something similar to this is in the movie “The Post” it talks about how a journalist exposed how the U.S. Government was hiding how they knew that we were going to lose in the Vietnam War, I think that we had the right to know and it was ethical for the journalist to expose the secrets. I think it is unethical to hide secrets and ethical to actual expose the truth and that there is nothing wrong with it.
These were great posts for the most part. there are two of you who are still missing your posts here.
Assignment 15
Whistleblowing is the act of exposing the wrong doings of one’s employment. A watchdog is someone who exposes the wrong doings of an organization, but from the outside.
My parents have always told me that if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear. So, if an organization isn’t doing anything unethical, they shouldn’t fear whistleblowers working in their establishment. However, I have to value Julian’s Assange anonymous whistleblowing. Here why:
If a whistleblower remains anonymous, he or she is guaranteed no punitive action will be brought against them. Remaining anonymous allows a whistleblower to show and speak all of the wrong doings of their company, guaranteed they will not have any consequences (unless they find out who the whistleblower is). In addition, the whistleblower keeps their job, co-workers, and life.
This is an example from my personal life. A director was using the egoist ethical theory, she was taking personal advantage of the company where we worked. The director would eat the food, sleep in the rooms and even use the company car for personal trips to home. The employees realized what she was doing was wrong. She was taking advantage of the company and the employees for her own personal benefit. The employees tried to notify the owner of the establishment, with no success. The director got away with what she was doing. The situation was not ethically resolved because the owners of the business did not do anything to stop the director from doing what she was doing even after they received letters from employees and staff about this director and her actions.
Assignment #15
This chapter reminds me of the episode in The Office where the press finds out that Sabre's printers catch on fire, the CEO shows up to the office in hopes of finding out who the whistleblower is. Whistleblowing is the act of a person exposing inside information which accuses an organization or group of people from unethical and/or illegal activities. Julian Assange and his Wikileaks platform felt that it was important for people to know unethical activities that could possibly harm us. Instead of working for the greater good of the people, organizations or groups of people may be engaging in illegal acts, it may be unwanted truths but it is the only way we can feel a sense of trust towards these organizations. Assange believes whistleblowers should be able to turn in information anonymously. In one of the articles it goes into detail the change whistleblowers present these days and how they use technology to spread information. Now days, information can be turned into bits and transferred across the world at ease. In an organization, if somebody has information about wrong doings from within, that person should not be ignored. Instead, find more details of their claims and exposed any unethical activities.
Assignment 15
Whistleblowing is the act of releasing information that is illegal or unethical in some way to a group of people to expose the truth. I agree to some degree of what Assange did, I do not have enough knowledge of everything he released about America and I have definitely heard that some of what he revealed could have created a national security issue. I think he was doing the right thing by informing the public about some of the things the government was hiding from us. I think there should be more transparency in our government, it is our country as well. The “hacktivist” that exposed those Ohio rapists has been treated unethically without a question in my opinion. They should not fault him for shining the truth on a horrifying event for the victim. Yes he did not exactly follow the law but I believe it was necessary to get justice for that girl. If I were in a situation where I could expose something like this for the greater good I would do it in a heartbeat, it is just as bad to be a bystander. Through the deontological theory and relativism I believe it would be the most ethical and moral thing any person could do. In situations like this you must weigh the consequences and see if you would be hurting more people by not saying anything.
Assignment #15
Whistleblowing is the act of bringing attention to a situation that has questionable legality. Whistleblowing is inspired by ethical motives to report unethical behavior that are most commonly illegal. As stated by our professor, and as we have seen on the news with popular whistleblowers they often are alienated by their employer and even by the government. I agree with Julian Assange on the value of anonymous whistleblowing because of the security it gives to people who may want to report unethical or illegal activity, who in turn don’t because of the fear that may come after being public with information that can harm a powerful company or a government. Anonymous whistleblowing will help rid the world of unethical and illegal activities that go on everyday that negatively effect peoples lives. Metaphorically speaking (if the oil is unethical illegal activity) some would argue that cutting off the oil supply to a well-oiled machine would not be worth it because of the backlash that may come, or the productivity that may come to a halt. To those people our world would be better off to just ignore whistleblower worthy activity. I think the example from the reading about Deric Lostutter was resolved unethically. It is very unfortunate that Lostutter, even though what he was doing was ethical and morally justifiable to most, he still received more prison time than the actual rapists he exposed. This example supports my, and Assange’s stance of whistleblowing, and that you should be able to remain anonymous when flushing out the truth, that will better society-utilitarian ethics. For Lostutter he unfortunately was also at the time committing an illegal act and also seemed to be alienated by egotistical views of the judge, because of the social implications of being a ‘hacker’ vs two promising athletes.
Assignment #15
Whistleblowing is the act of exposing sensitive and unethical information from within an organization with anyone outside of the organization. I do agree with Julian Assange in valuing anonymous whistleblowing. In some professions, sometimes unethical behaviors takes a life of its own. Often one small unethical action is passed as well enough and spirals from there. I think there is value to allowing someone who may not have the confidence or power to find someone to report the information to. I think the ability to freely report unethical behaviors should be welcomes by organizations, but they often do not allow this from employees. One story that I can relate to is when Floyd Landis spoke up and reported his steroid use and the use of his teammates. I can remember hearing this story when I was younger and not believing what he was saying. And of course, when Lance Armstrong was finally stripped of his own medals and the report of Landis was actually true were we all surprised that no one paid more attention to his report. I do not think it was not handled correctly by the public when Landis reported the usage of steroids, and I think this is a issue with our society. We have a hard time listening and investigating reports from people who are considered whistleblowers. I think a a society as a whole we need to take more seriousness in the claims of the whistleblowers and not pass off reports of disgruntled employees.
Assignment 15
Whistleblowing is when insider knowledge of corruption or dishonesty occurring within a private or public entity is revealed to the public, by an insider. I agree with Julian that whistleblowing is an ethical form of revealing information, because it reveals the right information. He explains that “legitimate secrets,” such as one’s personal medical information, is the type of information that should remain private, because that information is not hurting anyone nor is its concealing hurting anyone. On the other hand, he considers some information to be extremely important to public knowledge, as it is likely to cause reform. Julian explains the very fact that people are putting high levels of effort and money into covering it up signals that it involves impactful, society-shifting content.
One example we read from Reddit involving the supposedly professional football player admitting to using steroids and playing “fixed games” intrigued me greatly. I believe this could be resolved more ethically, however, because for this whistleblowing to be effective in stirring public backlash and perhaps changing public opinion on professional sports, the player would need to name some more specific names. Anonymously, this claim only has enough power to stir speculation and critical thinking, but does not “risk” enough concrete, specific information to become widespread and bring attention to the issue. People won’t take it seriously. Understandably, the player does not wish to give up his all-star career and paycheck, but in terms of ethics, the player definitely has room to act more ethically by giving up these things in the name of the public good. Because of the entertainment value of sports, maybe knowing the truth about the “Dark side of sports” wouldn’t really benefit the public, because people would just be disappointed. So, it depends on whether we are thinking ethically in terms of maintaining the happiness of the majority of people/sports fans (utilitarianism), or in terms of valuing and prioritizing virtues such as honesty at all costs (virtue ethics). In this case, the player/author is attempting to engage in ethical egoism; doing the best thing for his conscience but also his career. He seems to be attempting to find a balance to reach his maximum happiness by relieving his guilt without sacrificing his career and reputation. If he truly wished to improve the general good, perhaps he would take his whistleblowing a step further.However, if he submitted this post to a more high-profile site which is taken more seriously, like WikiLeaks, and was a bit more specific in the names of people, the player wouldn’t necessarily have to reveal his own identity.
Assignment 15
Whistleblowing is when an individual on the inside of an organization exposes details of unethical or illegal information about the same organization. I do agree with Julian Assange, because he is giving the chance for people to expose unethical or illegal information about their company anonymously. This allows for many people to bring illegal or suspect information to the public, without dealing with the repercussions of being fired from the organization. By allowing individuals to be anonymous, will bring change to the unethical decisions made by organizations. The CounterCurrent news story about Deric Lostutter, who leaked evidence leading to the conviction of two rapist was not ethically resolved. How is it that the man who exposed the rapist, gets more time behind bars than the actual rapist? It is extremely shocking that the individuals whom performed such a heinous crime like rape, would get less time than the individual who exposed them. Deric Lostutter was just doing what he thought was right and in the end, it did lead to conviction. But, it is extremely unethical that Lostutter got more time than the rapist. With websites like WikiLeaks, will allow for illegal information to brought to light without the repercussions.
Assignment 15:
Whistleblowing is when someone is informing on a company or a person within that company. They are informing things that are wrong but being done in the company. Sometimes the person is doing this anonymous but others are doing this known. As much as it does not make sense these people are then gone after by the company and sometimes employees of the company because they are unhappy that their dirty laundry was washed in public. Although they are doing things that are unethical and wrong they are just upset that people found out. Just like any other situation things can escalade quickly. There are often people who get very upset or even want to go after these whistleblowers. With all of this information that could be coming out could damage the company to many different extents. This obviously causes rage in many different areas of the company and can cause an outbreak of anger and lashing out. I agree with the ted talk and how everything should be anonymous because of the fact that whistleblowers should not be in trouble for showing the illegal or ethical situations in a company. i think that whistleblower cases have a line though, I believe that finding things that are unethical going on in day to day life and company situations are a bit of a must now a days because of the constant corruption but there is also situations and articles I have read about government ones and leaking plans and government secrets which I don’t think is as great. I think its hard to draw the line as it is with many different situations. Within one of the articles it discusses the change in whistleblowers and how they are able to spread information so much more efficiently with using technology. This meaning the digital side of everything in todays era makes for a whole new level and issue. Important information is being made digital and that makes the access easier and more problems arise.