Thinking J: Wiki what?

When considering the issue of anti-corruption within governments, the name Julian Assange instantly pops into mind. The founder of the notorious ‘Wikileaks’ page, Assange is known around the world for his involvement in the hacking of government information, and the dissemination of what was once secret government information. Assange is the most well-known figure surrounding WikiLeaks due to his position as editor-in-chief as well as the spokesman for the organisation however several journalists, computer programmers, activists and even volunteers were also involved in the establishment of the website. Since its formation in 2006, several controversial leaks of information have been spread around the globe, sourced from anonymous informants, government documents and classified media. According to Assange wikiLeaks is “an un-censorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis” (Columbia university, 2012), where information that was once protected is made public.

It’s always interesting to consider the two sides of the story. It could be said that the idea of WikiLeaks and its aims enable us to be aware of issues in the world. WikiLeaks provides a place for citizens to gain an understanding of a ‘real story’ which is, in theory uncensored and enables us to see our basic human rights exercised. The organization stands up for the idea of freedom of expression and human’s desire for the truth. We are able to see the ways in which our governments control information, and WikiLeaks has the potential for citizens to be made more aware of issues such as censorship and corruption within regimes.

On the other hand, in saying that WikiLeaks will provide citizens with freedom and an understanding of the truth, there comes problems, both political and ethical that needs to be considered. Politically, WikiLeaks transparency means that governments are vulnerable and a typical hierarchy within a nation becomes damaged. In turn, this created a distrust of the government by the people which is potentially damaging to a nation and its governments credibility. There also becomes a fine line between governments protecting security whilst also providing citizens with truthful and detailed information (Yale Global Online, 2013). There is also the risk of information being wrongly reported, misunderstood or being read out of context. Ethically, the information that is being reported by WikiLeaks is classified as secret, and the reasons for the information not being readily available is obviously a good one. The identities of government members and information about individuals involvements are also released which is less than ethical.

Currently, Julian Assange is living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and has been for over 9 months after being offered asylum in august of 2012. Assange is facing rape and sexual assault charges in sweden, and he hopes to avoid being extradited there. As well as this, Assange also fears being extradited from Sweden to the United States in relation to his involvement in WikiLeaks. However, despite his absence, WikiLeaks is still up and running, with the most recent post being dated the 8^th of april 2013. The future of the website is ambiguous at this point in time and only time will tell the future of one of the best examples of digital activism today.