💡 In simple words: Sometimes a person sees something going wrong and is brave enough to say it. WikiDeal wants to protect and help these people at every step, because honest alerts keep the project fair for everyone.

🎯 In 20 seconds (scientific summary): Protecting and supporting whistleblowers is intended as part of the core of the WikiDeal approach: protection and support at every step, from the first report to its resolution. This page presents the intention, the culture and the practice of that protection, with concrete examples of the drifts an alert can target: renewed speculative tendencies, unfair conditions that are hard to identify, potentially abusive dominant positions, facade adherence to WikiDeal values, and mercenary rather than partner behaviour. The reporting mechanisms themselves live in the Whistleblowing observatory, in the Market space; this page connects them to the audit and social justice work of the Justice portal.

Whistleblower protection

A core commitment

Whistleblower protection is not a peripheral feature: it is intended as part of the core of the WikiDeal approach. The founding question, can users own, run and sustain a global marketplace, only holds if drifts can be named early and safely. WikiDeal therefore aims at the protection and support of whistleblowers at every step, from the first report to its resolution.

A culture of trust

Alerts are only possible in a culture where raising a concern is seen as an act of partnership, not as an attack. This culture is described in the Ecopol social contract (adapted from the Bâtir Groupé / Smala communities of the Ynternet.org ecosystem): we are all partners, we communicate in a nonviolent way, we address difficulties directly to the people concerned, and we practise the preventive alert of conflicts and mediation. Whistleblowing extends this everyday practice to the cases where the usual channels are not enough.

What an alert can look like: concrete examples

The following examples illustrate the kinds of drift an alert could target. They are illustrations, not an exhaustive list.

Speculative tendencies re-emerging: groups of users, for example gathered around a mailing list, whose culture drifts back towards speculation; excessive remuneration mechanisms for people in charge; communication that presents "investment opportunities" instead of support.
Unfair conditions that are hard to identify: terms or practices that quietly disadvantage some users and are difficult to detect from the outside.
Dominant positions retained in a potentially abusive way: too little transmission, in particular of responsibilities, and no evolution in who holds key roles.
Facade adherence: pseudo-humanist actors presenting themselves as "non speculative", pretending to adhere to WikiDeal's values and principles without actually doing so.
Mercenary behaviour rather than partnership: acting for short-term personal gain without commitment to the common project, where the community agreements expect partners united by their differences and complementarities.

Protection and support in practice

Protection and support are intended to cover every step: before a report (safe channels, advice), during the report (anonymous submission where needed, moderated review before publication), and after it (follow-up until resolution, protection from defamation for both whistleblowers and those accused). The concrete mechanisms are documented on the Whistleblowing observatory page, in the Market space.

Alerts about financial flows connect to the audit work of the Court of Auditors, which is intended to audit the fairness and compliance of reward mechanisms, commission structures and fund distribution. More broadly, whistleblower protection belongs to the social justice approach of the Justice & Disputes portal, alongside arbitration and guarantors.

Gov/en/Portal:Justice/Whistleblower

Whistleblower protection

A core commitment

A culture of trust

What an alert can look like: concrete examples

Protection and support in practice

See also