Whistleblower laws don't work out so well for those who threaten to blow the whistle as a negotiating tactic.

It's not retaliation if they fire you before you make the disclosure...

I think they work out ok, I suppose. The big “whistleblowers” over the pas few years haven’t actually been whistleblowers because they leaked confidential secrets. So Reality Winner, Chesley Manning, etc were convicted independent of any whistleblower laws.

And why Snowden had to do an illegal act to reveal.

But I think these scenarios are totally different from these Twitter leaks where there’s no whistleblowing or illegal activity revealed.

But I think there are tons of examples where the law worked and whistleblowers were protected and even financially rewarded, https://www.phillipsandcohen.com/successful-cases/