Utah Law Review Volume 2019 Number 5 Article 2 1-2020 Employees as Regulators: The New Private Ordering in High Technology Companies Jennifer S. Fan University of Washington School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr Part of the Business Organizations Law Commons, and the Labor and Employment Law Commons Recommended Citation Fan, Jennifer S. (2020) "Employees as Regulators: The New Private Ordering in High Technology Companies," Utah Law Review: Vol. 2019 : No. 5 , Article 2. Available at: https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2019/iss5/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Utah Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Utah Law Review by an authorized editor of Utah Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. EMPLOYEES AS REGULATORS: THE NEW PRIVATE ORDERING IN HIGH TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES Jennifer S. Fan* Abstract There is mounting public concern over the influence that high technology companies have in our society. In the past, these companies were lauded for their innovations, but now as one scandal after another has plagued them, from being a conduit in influencing elections (think Cambridge Analytica) to the development of weaponized artificial intelligence, to their own moment of reckoning with the #MeToo movement, these same companies are under scrutiny. Leaders in high technology companies created their own sets of norms through private ordering. Their work was largely unfettered by regulators, with the exception of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s oversight of public companies. Now, however, white-collar employees at high technology companies are speaking out in protest about their respective employers’ actions and changing private ordering as we know it.