WikiLeaks :History & Context

Michael Zimmer, PhD

Center for Information Policy Research

School of Information Studies

UW-Milwaukee

www.wikileaks.ch

Origin Launched in 2006 (wikileaks.org)

Originally launched as traditional “wiki” where users make live edits and commentary

Later changed to more traditional format where people can submit information, but editors decide what to publish

Founded by “Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and start-up company technologists, from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa” Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is

generally described as its director Over 1.2 million documents in its first year

Purpose Original

"primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20080314204422/http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks:About

Current “The broader principles on which our work is based are

the defence of freedom of speech and media publishing, the improvement of our common historical record and the support of the rights of all people to create new history.”

http://www.wikileaks.ch/About.html

Selected Releases Dec 2006: Apparent Somali assassination

order Hoped that users would verify authenticity….never

happened Guantanamo Bay operating procedures Secret 'bibles' of Scientology

Scientology claimed copyright infringement; in response, WikiLeaks released several thousand additional pages

Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account contents Climategate emails Internet censorship lists for Australia,

Denmark, Thailand Bilderberg Group meeting reports

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_published_by_WikiLeaks

July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike

Series of three air-to-ground attacks conducted by a team of United States Army AH-64 Apache helicopters

Nine men were killed, including two members of the media, who’s cameras were mistaken as weapons

Two versions released: Full 39-minute version Edited 17-minute version, titled “Collateral Murder”

Afghan and Iraq War Logs 92,000 documents related to the war in

Afghanistan 400,000 documents relating to the Iraq war Mostly raw field intelligence reports, detailing

Mundane status reports, but also Civilian & friendly-fire casualties War crimes, psy-ops Influence of outside forces

Criticized for endangering lives of local informants, as well as military personnel

United States diplomatic cables leak Starting in Nov 2010, daily release (80 per

day) of detailed correspondence between the U.S. State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world

Over 250,000 documents, detailing international affairs from 300 embassies dated from 1966–2010 containing diplomatic analysis of world leaders, an

assessment of host countries, and a discussion about international and domestic issues

Leaked from the U.S. SIPRNet, the U.S. Department of Defense’s classified version of the civilian internet

Reaction to “Cablegate” WikiLeaks experienced distributed denial of

service attacks, attempting to bring down its website

Various service providers cut ties DNS provider (making “wikileaks.org” unoperable) Amazon stopped hosting its website PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa stopped processing

donations Air Force personnel were blocked from

accessing website Twitter accounts subpoenaed

“Anonymous” counter-attacked websites which were involved in censorship/disruption of Wikileaks

Challenge to Power WikiLeaks provides evidence of the exercise –

and abuses – of power Exposes how power operates in the real world,

on the ground Exposes hidden power relationships, and

disrupts them Both in politics, and in media

Protects sources from normal sanctions Has limited accountability or regulability

WikiLeaks is Not Neutral Has its own ideologies and motivations

The broader principles on which our work is based are the defence of freedom of speech and media publishing, the improvement of our common historical record and the support of the rights of all people to create new history.

But not all data is automatically made public Evaluates, parses, edits, and not transparently

Negotiates relationships with (particular) media outlets Attempts to manage information flow

Embroiled in own controversies re: Assange 1.4 GB “insurance file” of “embarrassing secret

documents”

WikiLeaks :History & Context

Michael Zimmer, PhD

Center for Information Policy Research

School of Information Studies

UW-Milwaukee