Wikileaks and All That

In my Digital Media class, and a bit in Psychology, we have been looking into Wikileaks. It has been a good time, but it seems that not everyone understands it as well as they could. A little bit of reading would go a long way, but I understand how not everyone is interested in it.

But should they? Wikileaks seems to be gaining momentum, and has outraged the Internet. It has brought up a lot of controversy.

Lets put some links in here:
It is so big that Google has a Live Feed for results if you are to search for Wikileaks.
The Wikipedia article about Wikileaks.
Wikileaks on Twitter has over 540,000 followers.

So for all of you who don't know, Wikileaks is an organization that has been posting classified documents from countries all around the world on the Internet for all to see. I am uncertain on how they have obtained most of these documents. I believe they may be leaked by moles within the governments that have created documents that have been posted. They are summit and a large amount of effort is put into keeping the identities of the suppliers.

The main office is located in Sweden, due to Swedish laws supporting free speak much more than most countries. This allows them to have their server, without worrying about hiding IP addresses. Much of the rest of the world may not like this organization, but they cannot shut them down directly; for now at least.

The main site has been shut down, or atleast blocked in several countries. This has lead to mirror sites being created. The danger in these is anyone could create one of these mirror sites in theory and post information of which is not true. The original organization does what they can to make sure the information is legitimate however not everyone may have the morals to do so.

False information may of gotten through anyways. The information may of been leaked by governments on purpose. One of the first dangers, or at least one of the first that I am going to address is within false information. I'm quite certain all the governments in the world have been keeping tabs on Wikileaks, and if they have not been doing so in the past few years before the site went viral they are now. What would stop a government from creating an 'official document' within itself, and then having it leaked on purpose?

The media is an important aspect of society, however it may not be as powerful as people have thought in the past. It has been said that Wikileaks has posted more than all of the media has in the past. The most powerful leaked information website ever could have propaganda in it. It could have lies, and it has become far too powerful to have mis-truths in it.

Although I'm fairly confident this is not the biggest worry to worry about. This has created a second look at free speech, and the concept of what information should be in the public domain.

If information has made its way out into the public, should it be there for everyone? This is my first discrepancy with Wikileaks. The information and documents have been classified for a reason. I can see there to be two reasons for classification; to protect the public, or to cover up something the government has done.

If something is released and it is hidden to protect the public, it is because the information could cause direct harm (such as information on how to make weapons) or it could be upsetting. I'm fine with not knowing what's happening in a war situation. I'm fine with not knowing of executions that NGO's (well that may be an incorrect term, however I'm using it in terms of an organization not limited by a government) have gone through with unjustly.

As for cover ups, I think they need to be exposed. Perhaps not all of them should, but it is good for the government to be honest. If the information is going to be put out anyways, perhaps it would be best for governments to be honest and accountable in the first place instead of trying to explain why they covered something up.

That's funny, a completely honest government? It sounds like a proper anarchy.

Anarchy is gaining popularity again. The traditional 'anarchist rebellious anti-authoritarian individual' stereotype is fading away a bit as more people realize how a proper anarchy is a good thing. The problem with society is a proper anarchy is not possible. I'll go into this some other time.

The anarchy I will go into revolves around the Internet, the battle ground for Wikileaks and the free speech-information battle. The government is not able to sensor the Internet the way they can sensor the media. I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Japanese Student Life distracted me with spotted jellyfish.

I'll finish this later. Class is over.

Bugworlds