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Using "leaker" instead of "whisteblower" is not necessarily wrong, just politically charged.

Using "leaker" means you are ignoring that what he did was to blow whistle on illegal activities and only focusing on him.

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Leaking was the method. It is a statement of fact that he was a leaker. It’s a statement of values/opinion that he was a whistleblower.

It's good manners to avoid calling somebody a word they don't call themselves, and in this case I'd personally defer to The Guardian's articles from 2013 that say "whistleblower": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLjuVyIIrs

Grey comments like this are a reminder that the american tech industry has reached a point where you're only allowed to advocate for one set of ideas out loud (what a coincidence considering where SV and SF are). Nothing this person said is wrong or phrased in a hostile manner but the comment is going grey for simply acknowledging the nuance of the topic. As someone who grew up as a dem during a time when dems were the ones preaching tolerance, it's weird that we're the censorship party now.

Agreed

Ditto.

If I witness a robbery in progress, and I call the cops, am I a leaker?

Only if you worked for the robbers and they thought you wouldn’t tell.

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