Popular online message board Reddit, known for its free-wheeling postings, is allowing users to name government whistleblowers on its service.
That reality was highlighted this week when the site let users post the identity of the White House whistleblower who spawned an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.
Reddit approach is in stark contrast to Facebook, Google, and YouTube, which all have said they would remove any mention of the person’s name from their websites. Many traditional publishers, including Coins2Day, have also decided against identifying the whistleblower.
Their rationale is that naming whistleblowers may put their lives and jobs at risk, in addition to dissuading future ones from coming forward. Federal law prohibits government agencies from revealing the names of whistleblowers, but it’s not a crime for average people to do so.
Aside from Reddit, the only other major U.S. Website that has decided against filtering the whistleblower’s identify is Twitter. In some cases, Twitter says it’s acceptable, such as when U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican from North Carolina, tweeted it out.
Reddit has a long history as a bastion of profane content and harassment. The site’s forums were at the center of the 2014 Gamergate controversy that perpetuated harassment against female video game developers, journalists, and players. Some Reddit users also fueled the discredited Pizzagate conspiracy theory during the 2016 election that suggested Democratic Party and elected officials were involved in a human trafficking ring.
In a statement to Coins2Day, a Reddit spokesperson said that the website “encourages an open discussion regarding issues of public and political relevance.” But she cautioned that “personal information or the encouragement of harassment or vigilantism,” violates its policy.
Reddit declined to say why it doesn’t have a whistleblower policy.
In some cases, like when users posted the whistleblower’s name along with language that could incite harassment, Reddit deleted it. But in other cases in which there was no rule broken, Reddit left the posts up.
In general, Reddit has called on its volunteer moderators to remove objectionable content. In some cases, when forums violate its policies, Reddit quarantines them, or brands them with a warning that requires users to opt in to view what’s posted there.
For example, earlier this year, Reddit quarantined the Donald Trump-focused r/The_Donald subreddit after users repeatedly posted violent content there.
Andrew Bakaj, the White House whistleblower’s attorney, says Reddit’s policy of allowing users to name whistleblowers is misguided. A whistleblower’s right to anonymity, a necessity for good government oversight and individual safety, should come first.
“Members of the media—and I submit social media companies—have a similar role in protecting those who lawfully expose suspected government wrongdoing,” Bakaj told Coins2Day.
He fears “a larger effort to unmask” the whistleblower by lawmakers and other politically motivated individuals. And any website like Reddit that helps them “is therefore complicit,” he says.
Even when using filtering technology, websites have trouble policing what millions of users post. Reddit wouldn’t say whether it uses technology that could selectively filter names or other information.
Jacob Young, a management information systems professor at Bradley University who is focused on cybersecurity and whistleblowers, says trying to block the whistleblower’s identity from leaking online is a “futile effort.” Even companies like Facebook and Google that say they can hide the person’s identity may not be successful.
“It is essentially playing a digital version of Whac-A-Mole,” Young says. “You can’t guarantee that you’ll hit them all, but saying you can still sounds good.”
Young describes himself a “staunch whistleblower advocate.” But he cautions that preserving anonymity is impossible in a world in which anyone can post content online.
“That is too much of a burden to place on any company,” Young says about Reddit blocking users from posting the whistleblower’s identity.
Instead, Young criticized the federal government’s whistleblower process, which he said doesn’t go far enough in hiding whistleblowers’ identities.
“As is evident with this particular situation, anyone relying on someone else to keep their identity a secret is likely to be identified eventually,” Young says. “This has essentially resulted in sanctioned reporting channels becoming honey pots that lure naive and well-intended people right into a retaliation trap.”
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