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Comment by impostervt | Hacker News Reader

What are the potential legal ramifications for the whistleblower?

That’s a good question. Leaking internal company documents doesn’t automatically grant someone whistleblower protection. She appears to be trying an angle where she claims that Facebook’s activities have harmed shareholders in an attempt to capture some degree of whistleblower protection, but that’s a huge stretch given that she’s arguing they made choices in the interest of profits without violating any actual laws.

At this point, I think her best chance is to hope that Facebook will simply try to minimize the legal issue to avoid making her into too much of a martyr.

It's not really an "angle", she worked with a whistleblower protection organization and she specifically gave these documents to the SEC, filing 8 complaints with the regulatory organization. All of that communication is protected.

I don't know what the legal implications for leaking to the press are, but that's where her exposure is.

Her bigger risk is probably the employment angle. Hard to picture hiring this person except if you're 100% certain your company's behavior aligns with her morals, and you can't find anyone else. Even for people who generally agree with her view on Facebook employing her presents a pretty serious known risk at this point.

She has politics written all over - not to worry.

That would be my assumption, or some kind of public policy position. Not to say that her concerns aren't genuine, but she has to be aware that for better or for worse she won't have an easy time finding further work in the industry.

She'll be fine. She is now globally famous for doing something an awful lot of people think is brave and admirable, and she has also shown off on TV how sharp and eloquent she is. There are a huge number of companies who will jump on the chance to bring her onboard.

I'm having doubts, seems that most startups and small/medium businesses will not care at all. Have you seen the market? Engineers are ridiculously scarce. Most hiring managers and execs will just say something like "Great, we're too small and don't do anything like Facebook. Just keep her in the code and restrict access to Google Drive"

I can't see her being a coder going forward. She is globally famous for taking a stand (from a very technically informed perspective) on policy issues. A smart company would hire her to be in a very public facing position, that will reflect upon themselves positively.

Obviously, a company that has a huge amount to hide isn't going to want to hire her.

I'm guessing she would be eligible for an SEC whistleblower award if her complaints result in fines to Facebook.

Has she alleged any illegal behaviors? Nothing I read seemed to be against the law, but I guess the law is a big and complicated beast.

Oh, she doesn’t work in tech now. Her work will now involve television interviews and book-signing tours. From that jumping off point, she’ll be able to do what she likes.

I think that underestimates her abilities. I think it is more likely she will found or at least join a policy focused non-profit that will further her social goals while making use of her existing technical and management skills.

Also overestimates her abilities in a different direction. Becoming a media personality is hard, and takes an entirely different skillset. It just seems easy to people who have an axe to grind against the currently successful crop of personalities.

OP asked about the legal ramifications, not the social and professional implications of her whistleblowing.

But that said, I think there are a lot of cynical takes in this comment thread. I don't think Frances will find have a difficult time getting a job. There are plenty of people in tech who think what she did was admirable and are very proud of her, including her alma mater. Sure there will be many people and companies who wouldn't hire her, but there are also many who will.

I seriously doubt shareholders agree with her angle.

> her best chance is to hope that Facebook will simply try to minimize the legal issue to avoid making her into too much of a martyr

I suspect the opposite. They will attempt to make an example of her to dissuade subsequent whistleblowers.

Social media has a short attention span and forgets its "martyrs" within days.

Doesn't the fact that Facebook shares dropped %5+ yesterday give some credence to that argument? It's obviously more complex than that, but selling is how shareholders would express their agreement.

But the stock has bounced back today. A lot of tech stocks dipped yesterday.

The entire tech sector sold off for unrelated reasons.

Also, the most concrete expression of shareholder opinions is at the shareholder meetings - which never even mention these subjects.

anything FB does against her will undermine the PR damage control campaigns underway. They may wait for all this to "blow over" and then try to go after her once their very expensive campaigns make some impact.

It's more likely that they will collude with other big tech firm and lobby for aggressive legislation against whistleblowers to prevent something like this from ever happening.

Edit -- there are reports suggesting the whistleblower is represented by the PR firm where the current US govt press secretary held a SVP role, so her case is unofficially aligned to the current administrations agenda: https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1445438141775683584

Coming in with the amplification of alt right conspiracy theorists hot take... How meta.

How is that "alt-right" (whatever that means) or a "conspiracy theory"?

It is a direct connection that would be looked into by anybody, including Facebook, who is investigating the information Frances leaked.

I don't think it is what you are getting at, but she may be entitled to financial compensation if Facebook is fined as a result of her whistleblowing.

> Whistleblower awards can range from 10-30% of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1 million.

[0]: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2021-149

Seeing as how the actual mechanics of the leak were orchestrated by an attorney, and the documents were sent to an enforcement division of the Federal Government, it would be a pretty fair guess that they have considered it and are on solid legal ground.

Are they operating pro bono?

If not, they may simply take the case because it will generate a lot of work for them, and it’s likely that such a public case could attract plenty of donations to fund the cause. Having argued a high profile case against Facebook is a huge reputation boost for a lawyer.

> Are they operating pro bono?

They are a public interest non-profit: https://whistlebloweraid.org/vision/

Potentially severe for leaking company IP. There are explicit legal protections for whistleblowing to the SEC but I don't believe there is anything protecting one's right to go to journalists with privileged information. However, Facebook would be 100% insane to press legal charges because that just drags this on even longer and reinforce the perception that they're bullies

I don't think I agree. If they don't enforce a precedent of consequences for leaking confidential documents, it will be a complete breakdown of operational security (everyone will feel free to leak memos and documents).

And ultimately it's gonna be the call of a single person in the entire company.

They have no choice. They MUST enforce their IP. That's how IP law works. If you don't contest it - you lose ownership of it.

What could come out in court if they shut her up could be much more damaging to FB's reputation than it's worth, and it'd probably be hard to find a jury likely to convict her when she hasn't directly gained financially from it.

Depends how she play it. From a work perspective she sadly might have a tough time getting employed at other companies. It would depend on how she plays the next bit though. That said I wouldn't be surprised if theres a book that comes out of this given the amount of media already surrounding this.

I am curious what her longer term goals are - she is clearly intelligent, has solid PM experience in the industry and is certainly aware of what she is doing. I'm guessing there is a strategy of some sort at play - maybe leading an NFP for better corporate practices. Best of luck either way hope this changes things in a meaningful way!

This program says there's an act passed 10 years ago protecting whistleblowers who report internal documents to the state.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-whistleblower-frances-...

Whistleblowing to the state is different than going on a media tour. The protections for the former don’t extend to the latter.

No more Facebook for her.

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