Whistleblower-those who suffer wrongdoing within an organization-plays a crucial role in keeping governments and companies accountable. But speaking up can cost you. People who report misconduct often face retaliation, unemployment, or legal threats that make reporting risk and challenging. When legal protections for whistleblowers are weakened, the risk only increases.

This is exactly what many workers face today.

In the United States, the Trump administration’s execution of orders threatens to effectively deprive thousands of federal workers of their rights to whistleblower protection. The executive order is part of a bigger effort to reclassify civil servants as “willing” workers who can be fired at any time for any reason. Although federal workers have protected protections of retaliation against whistleblowers for decades, these safeguards are now under threat. This is because private sector whistleblowers are also facing increasingly retaliation.

However, while the risks are real, reporting is not impossible. Indeed, after more than 10 years of researching reports, I have observed that insiders who successfully alert them often have to work with help - by working with allies who can amplify information and help them avoid revenge.

Meet the "Last Regulator"

My new book, Last Resort’s Supervisor: Whistleblower, Limitations of Law and Power of Partnerships, tells the stories of whistleblowers from Facebook, Amazon, Amazon, Theranos, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Center and Ireland’s Public Power Services. In each case, the workers suffered revenge and were actively silent. In each case, they persevere and allies emerge to help.

For Facebook employee Frances Haugen, finding an ally means working with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, a tech expert who has written about Facebook’s misconduct for some time. When Haugen decided to publicize awareness about the social media platform’s knowledge of teenagers and the violence imposed on the non-English version of their website, Horwitz emerged when and how newspaper articles were conducted, helping them maximize their influence and granting Haugen control over her story.

This partnership is no accident. Haugen carefully selected journalists and technicians. “I auditioned for a while,” she later told reporters. “One of the reasons I went with him was that he was less sensational than other choices I could have made.”

Indeed, many whistleblowers and wrong reporters revealed that they would open their attacks.

In Theranos, a multi-billion dollar biotech company, it turned out to be a fraud - lawyer "Friends of Friends" gave whistleblower Erika Cheung critical advice about disclosures to regulators. It was a lifeline for recent graduates who feared her career and safety after being threatened by her boss and attorneys and warned to remain silent and comply with her non-disclosure agreement. At the same time, Zhang has no money to use for formal legal agency. Zhang told me that it was the appeal to lawyers. "He said, 'You can report it.'"

Her contact details explain that if she reveals to the Medicare & Medicaid Service Center, she can use the whistleblower to protect and break the NDA. She will have to do the right thing and focus on the details: to highlight Theranos' "regulatory violations" and to prove that the company violates the rules of proficiency testing. But all Zhang needs is a simple email to the right organization.

Finally, my research also details many colleagues at Amazon who supported reporting manager Chris Smalls, who disclosed the risks of life and health in the early days of Covid-19-19 in New York. When Sir was fired in an internal memo and was subjected to the racist language of the internal memo that was later leaked, his close colleague Derrick Palmer described his response. “I was shocked,” Palmer said. "I just know they want to- almost-the whole effort is silent. Anyone is shouting. That's how they're going to treat them, move forward. Including myself."

This strengthens Palmer's determination to help the villain. Meanwhile, the leaked memo prompted support letters and emails “from people around the country – Amazon workers, non-Amazon workers, also want to help advocates,” as Smalls said. In a few days and weeks later, workers held demonstrations at Amazon facilities across the United States, with banners announcing solidarity with New York warehouse whistleblowers.

No whistleblower is an island

These allies are often overlooked when the media focuses on whistleblowers. But their support is crucial, especially in this era when the protection of loud workers is under increasing global threats.

Organizations reporting allies involves strategies, and some nonprofits and civil society groups have become experts in the field. Leading the list are the U.S. government responsibility projects and their "information docking" methods. The idea is simple: the whistleblower needs a team of others - from experts to the public - around them. This requires planning.

For years, like lawyer activists in government accountability programs, whistleblower protection and support efforts have been taken as a holistic campaign that requires media operational and social efforts as well as legal defense.

Following the example of Dawn Wooten, a former nurse at the Irving County Detention Center (U.S. Immigration and Customs Executive Contractor), encountered and disclosed medical misconduct and serious failures. Dana Gold of the Government Accountability Program supported her whistleblower with other activists, recruiting civil society groups and politicians to recruit students, helping her newspaper articles in The Guardian and The New York Times, and even arranged New Yorker podcasts, in which Wooton told her story.

The information spread and several investigations were conducted. Within a year, the Department of Homeland Security directed the ICE to formally end its contract with the Irving County Detention Center and cited public revelations from Wooten and some detained women.

None of these are simple. In most whistleblowers disputes, the organization has a balance of power. It has files, witnesses and funds to pay for good lawyers. I found that the whistleblower's allies must work with any limited resources they can marshal to give themselves an advantage. This means attracting influencers who may help, including pro bono lawyers, can provide evidence, about regulators and experts who beat journalists. In short, what is necessary are all experts who are interested in the story and willing to help. What is important is collective effort.

However, even with this support, it is not easy for whistleblowers to report. In many compelling cases, the whistleblower was publicly disclosed and clearly proven and recognized as a brave truth lecturer, and may suffer afterwards. Potential employers can blame the prospect of hiring whistleblowers, even famous whistleblowers. Even after a story falls off the front page for a few years, the Douqi organization can and does continue to retaliate.

Whistleblower allies and their strategies provide no magic. But they can help increase the balance of power, leaving public opinion responsible for a competitive revenge or the intention of the government to work hard to make a strong country.