Is it now too late for governments worldwide to stem the tide of websites dedicated to leaking sensitive documents? Not just Wikileaks (which, last I heard, now has over 200 hundred mirrors worldwide, including one being hosted by Liberation, a French newspaper), but offshoots of the organisation, including the recent launch of OpenLeaks, a competing website formed by former WikiLeaks staff, and more specialised regional websites like BalkanLeaks, IndoLeaks and BrusselsLeaks.
In effect, are we witnessing a minor revolution in how citizens interact with governments worldwide, no longer willing to swallow the bullshit they’re fed by governments? If so, what will be the effect of this seachange?
Since the US saw fit to treat the internet like its own thing to lord over others figured there needs to be a way to sidestep it.
There are various technical difficulties that need to be overcome so we’ll have to wait and see what happens but given the ingenuity of the people of the internet I suspect they can pull it off if they make a serious effort at it.
I think this is both good and bad. I am all for the free flow of information, but some information, even if it should be told, needs to be brought out in a correct way. In other words, there are ways of telling people things. I learned this as a manager of a company. You can tell people things but you need to tell them in a correct manner.
On the good side, as other sites like this come, they hopefully will learn from Wikileaks mistakes and find ways to make the free flow of information better.
On the downside you have the chance that a large number of sites will show up and won’t provide any useful information. Especially those with “fringe” views that will now pop up and you’ll have an overload of information with a lot of it just garbage.
As it’s been said, everyone has a right to an opinion as long as you remember not all opinions are correct.
If I were in the US intelligence community this is exactly what I’d be doing. Bury the real leaks under an avalanche of porn, penis enlargement and work-from-home programs.
All that would happen then is some leaking websites come to be more trusted than others, in the same way that there’s a distinction between the gutter press and broadsheets.
WikiLeaks has some verification process although I am not sure what it is.
OpenLeaks is built differently and, presumably, news organizations will take the info found there and then do their usual due diligence as Journalists.
They do it all the time. Most recently, and most notably, the documents showing that Iraq was seeking to buy yellowcake (a form of uranium) from Nigeria, and was used by Bush as a pretext for his invasion of Iraq (even after Joe Wilson had told Cheney that the documents were faked and no such effort had been made) were reportedly created by the Italian secret service.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/RBS-backs-down-and-agrees.6662029.jp This article about the Royal Bank of Scotland, indicates there may be stockholder lawsuits against the bankers. There was an investigation that would say the bankers were guilty of “bad decisions”. There was no basis for suits. But Wikileaks revealed the insider banking cables and emails which showed a “lack of integrity”. Suits will be coming.
Wikileaks says the American bankers emails and inside info will be the next leak. I can’t wait. The screaming arrogance of the bankers will reveal how badly they treated their customers while rewarding themselves huge salaries and bonuses. It ,may make Americans aware of how badly we were treated. Hell they sold swaps that were equal to all the money that exists on the globe. Obviously they knew they could not payoff if the system went bad. They sold securities to customers while hedging the same securities they were claiming were foolproof. They were dishonest. I wait to see Goldman execs explain it all away.
I admin a non-small DNS install, and have thought about this problem before it arose. I’d seen grumbles about setting up alternative orgs to ICANN, but they haven’t gone anywhere. The DNS-p2p system that they are considering is still in the concept stages, but it might survive just because it doesn’t look like they’re going to try to replace DNS, but exist along side it. Let’s hope it becomes indispensable for something legitimate before it gets a reputation for being the tool of criminals. If it works out, it would go far in allowing organizations like wikileaks to flourish.