1. Whistleblowing in a time of digital (in)visibility: towards a sociology of ‘grey areas’
- Author
-
Thomas Olesen
- Subjects
tax havens ,Panama Papers ,democracy ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Big data ,ComputingMilieux_LEGALASPECTSOFCOMPUTING ,050801 communication & media studies ,Library and Information Sciences ,digitalization ,Politics ,0508 media and communications ,Paradise Papers ,big data ,Christopher Wylie ,ComputerApplications_MISCELLANEOUS ,NSA ,050602 political science & public administration ,whistleblowing ,Sociology ,POLITICS ,media_common ,business.industry ,Communication ,05 social sciences ,Visibility (geometry) ,Edward Snowden ,Public relations ,Democracy ,0506 political science ,ICTs ,surveillance ,ICTS ,business - Abstract
There are currently no concerted attempts to understand the role of whistleblowers in the new social and political environment created by digital ICTs. Digital ICTs drive an accelerating visibility where elites and citizens constantly acquire new tools to track, surveil, and scrutinize each other. Moreover, these technologies make possible a new kind of invisibility. Increasingly complex modes of digital data production and usage generate grey areas that seem to escape legal jurisdiction and democratic oversight. With their privileged access inside these grey areas, conscientious employees-turned-whistleblowers are likely to become key sources for the disclosure of serious wrongdoing in the coming years. The argument is empirically illustrated through three cases that represent different types of grey areas in advanced democracies: big data surveillance (Edward Snowden), tax havens (Antoine Deltour and the Panama and Paradise Papers), and digital political profiling (Christopher Wylie).
- Published
- 2020