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I suspect your comment isn't really being offered in good faith, but can you name a specific example of a company where a coworker did one of these things: > l

I suspect your comment isn't really being offered in good faith, but can you name a specific example of a company where a coworker did one of these things: > leak documents, raise alarms about operations they don't understand, and generally draw the company into litigation and it was actually a case of misguided political activism rather than legitimate whistleblowing? I suppose maybe in slaughterhouses or animal testing laboratories, but definitely not with tech. > In a highly sensitive market like crypto, you don't want to gain unnecessary regulatory attention, and activists like this will be the first to testify against the company with their biased interpretation of internal operations. It is very difficult to not read this as "sometimes crypto companies need to break the law to make that cheddar, and you really don't want any of these radical 'companies should obey the law' activists getting in your way."

thaeli 6y ago
It's a very minority view on HN, but important to keep in mind that there are quite a few people who consider what Snowden did "a case of misguided political activism".
brippalcharrid 6y ago
Companies that are in industries which generally attract the attention of regulators because they're doing something new, exciting and potentially disruptive won't want to create unnecessary scope for controversy that will lead to a regulator feeling the need to clamp down on them (this shouldn't happen if the controversy is unrelated to the regulated activities, but people are irrational, and it does). Conversely, an activist employee will know that they will have a far more effective platform to spread their message if they do it in an environment that has more regulatory exposure, and as a result greater potential for media coverage.
DenisM 6y ago
> I suspect your comment isn't really being offered in good faith Assume good faith https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
blaser-waffle 6y ago
Weren't there a few at Google? A conservative guy who generated headlines because of being discriminated against because he voted for the GOP? Also some sort of whistleblower who got fired for speaking out against anti-union activity (but may have been a personal / non-union issue)?

thaeli 6y ago

It's a very minority view on HN, but important to keep in mind that there are quite a few people who consider what Snowden did "a case of misguided political activism".

brippalcharrid 6y ago

Companies that are in industries which generally attract the attention of regulators because they're doing something new, exciting and potentially disruptive won't want to create unnecessary scope for controversy that will lead to a regulator feeling the need to clamp down on them (this shouldn't happen if the controversy is unrelated to the regulated activities, but people are irrational, and it does). Conversely, an activist employee will know that they will have a far more effective platform to spread their message if they do it in an environment that has more regulatory exposure, and as a result greater potential for media coverage.

DenisM 6y ago

> I suspect your comment isn't really being offered in good faith Assume good faith https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

blaser-waffle 6y ago

Weren't there a few at Google? A conservative guy who generated headlines because of being discriminated against because he voted for the GOP? Also some sort of whistleblower who got fired for speaking out against anti-union activity (but may have been a personal / non-union issue)?