Why requests from would-be whistleblowers are surging

By Sandrine Rastello

In 2025, The Signals Network noticed a sharp increase in the number of people asking for help, a trend that only got stronger in the first quarter of 2026, when requests more than tripled. We were not alone. Informal discussions with partners in the community and data from organizations such as The Dutch Whistleblowers Authority and the Whistleblower Protection Office in Slovakia suggest the trend is widespread.

So, what is going on? There is never just one factor behind a trend, and every country has unique circumstances influencing its numbers. But here are a few forces at play.

Whistleblowing is better known and understood

Not everyone describes whistleblowers the same way. For TSN, it is any individual who has disclosed publicly, or is thinking of disclosing publicly, information about a threat or harm to the public interest in the context of a work-based relationship, whether it be in the public or private sector.

Generally, people today have a sense of what whistleblowing means. That wasn’t always the case, says Anna Myers, the executive director of the Whistleblowing International Network, who has worked on these issues for two-and-a-half decades.

“In the past, if somebody asked me what I did, I would decide whether I had the time to talk to them about it. Not because we might have really interesting, long-winded discussions, but because you had to explain what the hell it was,” says Myers. These days, “the state of discussion in rooms I got into is so much higher.”

Highly publicized cases of wrongdoing revealed by whistleblowers, including investor fraud, public health and safety violations, tax avoidance and war crimes, have contributed  to a better, if imperfect, understanding of their role. Through investigative collaborations, movies and TV shows and the power of social media, they have become a more familiar presence.

Wim Vandekerckhove, a professor of Business Ethics at EDHEC Business School in France, witnessed a shift among students. Earlier negative stereotypes around whistleblowers (“snitches”) have made way to a positive image and a willingness to report wrongdoing. Now he tries to make sure they understand the realities of the whistleblowing journey.

“I need to say:  ‘Hang on, it’s not going to be as easy as you might think!’” he explains.

This new backdrop has been years in the making. Organizations that support whistleblowers (such as TSN, which exists since 2017), in turn, have also been gaining more visibility. And then, artificial intelligence accelerated it all.

Over the past months, several people approached TSN following ChatGPT’s recommendations. As Executive Director Delphine Halgand-Mishra wrote, it’s not a good idea for anyone considering blowing the whistle to share details about their situation with such chatbots. But as AI permeates every aspect of life, its impact is already showing.

The state of the world provides plenty of reasons to blow the whistle

The war in Iran has been a brutal reminder that the access to information we were taking for granted can be taken away overnight. In the U.S., the Trump administration has weakened or politicized the system of independent watchdogs that helped keep the federal government accountable. In Slovakia, the government recently tried —and ultimately failed— to abolish the Whistleblower Protection Office.

There are also worrying signs in the corporate world, where the culture of secrecy and heavy-handed non-disclosure agreements that Tyler Shultz ran into when he blew the whistle at Theranos has gotten worse, he told TSN.

As TSN Whistleblower Protection Program Director Margaux Ewen puts it: “There’s a general fear around rights being denied or taken away by a strict government that is cracking down on people who challenge authority in general, but also companies that crack down on people challenging authority.”

Could the urge to stop the fraying of democracy be driving more people to speak up? TSN, for one, has seen more U.S. government workers reach out.

Vandekerckhove relayed an anecdote he heard from the Brazilian compliance team of a multinational engineering company: when stories about the massive corruption scandal involving state-owned oil giant Petrobras started rocking the country  (which the company in question had nothing to do with), its own employees starting to speak up more. Reading about wrongdoing may act as a trigger.

Despite better legal protections, it’s a hard path to walk alone

As the recognition of whistleblowers’ role improved, so did the law, with countries such as  Senegal and South Korea taking steps to better protect them or compensate them. In 2019, the European Union adopted a whistleblower protection directive requiring all organization of more than 50 employees to set up internal reporting channels. The U.K now has a whistleblower reward program, which could help take some of the financial pressure off for people whose career may end for reporting wrongdoing.

Does it make it easier to blow the whistle? Not necessarily.

In the EU case, for instance, turning the directive into national laws has been uneven. Employers who retaliate against whistleblowers often face few (if any) repercussions, as remedies and compensation remain limited, many authorities lack power to impose sanctions, and access to independent advice is insufficient, according to a recent report by Transparency International.

Financial awards can also be elusive. The strict procedural requirements of the SEC and its recent denial of an award application to a whistleblower who had tipped the media first underline the limits of a tool conceived to protect the public from financial crimes.

Such a complex environment also helps explain why people turn to organizations and professionals who can help them navigate the legal, financial and psychological decisions.

Going back to data, is it good news we see more people reaching out? Halgand-Mishra sees reasons for hope.

“We may get the impression, in a world where everything is going wrong, that people are asleep,” she says. “But every week, we hear from dozens of people who want to fight and change it.”