Whistleblower Protection

Anthropic published 'RSP Noncompliance and Anti-Retaliation Policy' outlining how employees can report suspected RSP violations. First frontier AI company to publicly commit to ongoing monitoring and reporting on whistleblowing system - achieving 'Level 2 Whistleblowing Transparency.'

In May 2025, thirteen former Palantir employees published a letter condemning the company's work with the Trump administration, weeks after ICE awarded Palantir $30 million for ImmigrationOS. The former workers, including software engineers, managers, and a privacy team member, said the company had violated its own code of conduct stating software should 'protect the vulnerable.' They wrote: 'Early Palantirians understood the ethical weight of building these technologies. These principles have now been violated.'

Meta faces a lawsuit from Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who claims he was fired for attempting to fix bugs that suppressed Palestinian posts on Instagram. Hamad found content by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza was misclassified as pornographic. The lawsuit alleges Meta deleted internal employee communications mentioning relatives killed in Gaza and investigated employees for using the Palestinian flag emoji.

In June 2024, a former Neuralink animal care lead filed a lawsuit in California alleging pregnancy discrimination, failure to provide workplace accommodations, exposure to unsafe conditions, and whistleblower retaliation. The employee, hired in March 2021 and promoted in January 2022, was demoted in May 2023 and terminated in June 2023 after raising concerns. The lawsuit alleged a pattern of discriminatory and retaliatory actions by Neuralink managers.

In May 2024, it was revealed that OpenAI used restrictive offboarding agreements that threatened to claw back departing employees' vested equity if they refused to sign lifetime non-disparagement clauses. Altman initially claimed ignorance, stating 'I did not know this was happening and I should have.' However, leaked incorporation documents from April 2023 bearing Altman's signature explicitly authorized the equity clawback provisions, contradicting his denial. Former researcher Daniel Kokotajlo forfeited approximately $2 million in equity rather than sign. OpenAI subsequently confirmed it would no longer enforce these provisions.

Google terminated 50 employees related to protests against Project Nimbus, the $1.2 billion cloud contract with the Israeli government. Initial firings included 28 employees, with 9 charged with trespassing. Software engineer Eddie Hatfield was fired after shouting at a conference 'I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid, or surveillance.'

On November 17, 2023, OpenAI's board fired Sam Altman, stating he was 'not consistently candid in his communications.' Former board member Helen Toner later revealed specific allegations: Altman didn't inform the board about ChatGPT's launch (they learned from Twitter), concealed his ownership of OpenAI's startup fund, provided inaccurate information about safety processes, and two executives reported 'psychological abuse' with documentation. After 95% of employees threatened to resign, Altman was reinstated on November 22 with a reconstituted board. A later WilmerHale investigation found 'a significant breakdown of trust' but did not publish its full findings.

Nevada OSHA found serious safety violations at Boring Company's Las Vegas Loop tunnels in 2023 and fined the company $112,000. 42 workers reported injuries including cuts, sprains, and chemical burns from hazardous chemicals (bentonite, fly ash, Portland cement). Workers waded through chemical sludge up to two feet high in 100°F+ temperatures without adequate PPE. The company's safety manager filed a whistleblower complaint after being fired, alleging 'complete disregard' for safety. Boring was named to the 'Dirty Dozen' worst workplace safety offenders list in April 2024.

In May 2025, a lawsuit was filed alleging Computacenter fired a manager who reported a significant security breach at Deutsche Bank's New York headquarters. The breach involved an employee repeatedly bringing an unauthorized Chinese national into secure server rooms from March to June 2023. The manager claims the breach was not reported to SEC or Federal Reserve as required, and he was dismissed in July 2023 after raising concerns. He is seeking over $20 million in damages.

A whistleblower exposed that Samsung concealed approximately 13,000 environmental compliance violations at its Vietnam manufacturing facilities. The whistleblower, who worked in compliance monitoring, revealed systematic underreporting of violations to Vietnamese authorities. This followed Samsung's legacy of workplace safety issues including 320+ occupational disease cases and 118 deaths historically attributed to semiconductor and display manufacturing exposure to toxic chemicals.

Left his position as VP and Engineering Fellow at Google after 10 years to speak freely about AI dangers without worrying about impact on Google's business. Stated he could no longer stay silent about existential risks from AI.

Joseph Sullivan, Uber's former Chief Security Officer, was criminally convicted on October 5, 2022 and sentenced May 4, 2023 to three years probation and 200 hours community service for obstructing FTC investigation and failing to report a felony. Sullivan concealed 2016 data breach affecting 57 million Uber users while company was under FTC investigation for 2014 breach. He arranged for Uber to pay hackers $100,000 in bitcoin in December 2016 to keep breach secret. In September 2018, Uber paid $148 million multistate settlement for covering up the 2016 breach. The 2016 breach exposed over 25 million names and email addresses, 22 million names and mobile phone numbers, and 600,000 names and driver's license numbers of U.S. users.

In June 2022, SpaceX fired at least 8 employees who organized an open letter signed by over 400 staff criticizing CEO Elon Musk's public behavior as a 'distraction and embarrassment' and calling out a culture of 'sexism, harassment and discrimination.' In January 2024, the NLRB formally charged SpaceX with illegal retaliation, alleging the company also interrogated dozens of employees, created an impression of surveillance, and entered into unlawful severance agreements. SpaceX challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB itself in response.

In June 2022, eight SpaceX employees were fired after distributing an open letter to executives criticizing Elon Musk's behavior and workplace culture. Complaint alleges Musk personally ordered the terminations. In January 2024, the NLRB filed a complaint alleging illegal firings. In June 2024, the eight former employees filed a lawsuit alleging harassment, retaliation, gender discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and wrongful termination.

In June 2022, SpaceX fired employees who circulated an internal open letter calling Musk's online behavior 'a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment.' The NLRB filed a complaint in January 2024 alleging 37 labor law violations including intimidation, interrogation, surveillance of employees, and retaliation. SpaceX sued the NLRB claiming its structure was unconstitutional; the case was withdrawn in December 2024.

In April 2022, current DeepMind employees publicly detailed failures in the company's handling of harassment complaints. Employees described DeepMind leadership offering 'vague platitudes and defensive attempts to discredit the victim' rather than addressing reported harassment by a senior staff member. The employees criticized an 'obsession with reputation management at the cost of employees' well-being,' noting that the grievance process was 'life-changingly terrible' for those who reported harassment.

Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen leaked internal documents to Congress and testified on October 5, 2021, revealing that Meta's own research found 13.5% of teen girls said Instagram worsens suicidal thoughts and 17% said it contributes to eating disorders. Internal presentation stated 'we make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.' Research showed Instagram's algorithm can lead children from innocuous content to anorexia-promoting content quickly.

In 2021, Frances Haugen copied tens of thousands of internal Facebook documents and provided them to the SEC, Congress, and journalists. Known as the 'Facebook Papers,' these documents revealed Facebook knew Instagram was harmful to teen mental health (13.5% of teen girls said it worsened suicidal thoughts), that the platform's algorithms amplified divisive content, and that safety measures were weakened after the 2020 election. She appeared on 60 Minutes on October 3, 2021, and testified before Congress on October 5, 2021. Facebook's market cap dropped approximately $6 billion following the revelations.

Frances Haugen filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that Facebook's public statements about platform safety contradicted its internal research. The complaints focused on Facebook's knowledge of harms caused by its platform, including teen mental health impacts and algorithmic amplification of harmful content, which it allegedly concealed from investors.

A female staffer posted an 11-page account alleging her supervisor and a client sexually assaulted her on a business trip, with managers failing to act. Alibaba fired manager Wang Chengwen and accepted resignations from unit president and HR head. Critics noted Alibaba only acted after allegations went public on the company intranet. In December 2021, Alibaba fired the woman who made the allegations for 'spreading false information' and dismissed 10 staffers for sharing screenshots publicly.