The Perils of Tech Whistleblowing: ‘You Become a Target’
Ifeoma Ozoma was forced to leave her position at Pinterest Inc. after she claimed that she faced retaliation for advocating for equal pay. This incident not only resulted in her losing her job but also led her to completely depart from Silicon Valley.
For the latest episode of The Circuit With Emily Chang, I interviewed Ozoma at her ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Included were Timnit Gebru, a former Googler who resigned in 2020 after co-authoring a paper on the dangers of generative artificial intelligence, and Safiya Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression.
They said the job loss was not the end of Gebru and Ozoma. “You have stalkers,” Gebru said. “People will come after you.”
Ozoma’s abuse began before she even left Pinterest. Ozoma, who is black, said she objected to white supremacist content on the site, which led to her being outed by a white male colleague who posted her contact information online. He said that he then became the target of online harassment. Pinterest said it has taken steps to improve its culture.
Some have called tech critics like Ozoma, Gebru and Noble Luddites, but Ozoma said that couldn’t be further from the truth. “We’re not anti-technology. My whole career was at Google, Facebook and Pinterest,” Ozoma said. “We’re pro-human dignity.”
Ozoma went on to write the Tech Workers Handbook, a resource that provides advice and tips for tech workers considering blowing the whistle on their employer. He also helped pass the Silenced No More Act in California and Washington state, which helps protect employees who speak up about harassment and discrimination.
All three women said their biggest concern now is artificial intelligence. Not the kind of apocalyptic scenario popular with some in the valley. They said this narrative diverts attention from problems that already exist today in areas such as health care, credit and oversight. “Surveillance in ways that people can’t opt out of and people can’t defend against,” Ozoma said.
Gebru added: “We’re talking about people not getting mortgages, people not getting treatment and people being convicted.”
“One of the things people feel about technology is that it’s all-encompassing: These are the technologies we have, they’re here now, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Noble said. “People who lived in America during slavery also got up every day and got their kids ready for school.”
This episode of The Circuit With Emily Chang premieres Thursday, July 27 at 8 p.m. in New York on the Bloomberg app and Bloomberg.com and at 10 p.m. on Bloomberg Television. Watch the extended discussions on The Circuit podcast.
