WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization that publishes submissions of unveiled and confidential information from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. The slogan of this organization is “keep government open”, which emphasizes WikiLeaks’ purpose to eliminate censorship and establish an untraceable mass document leaking system. After publishing its first document which was about a decision to assassinate government officials in December 2006 (Massimo 2010), WikiLeaks has received praise as well as criticism from publics. Being a part of the phenomenon of the online, empowered citizens (Polly 2010), WikiLeaks has attracted some companies to be their donators to keep its website strong, meanwhile, it also invades the national sovereignty of some countries such as the United States, Germany and Iceland (Asher 2009) so some companies withdraw their services to WikiLeaks or even oppose it. Supporters claim that WikiLeaks is efficient media to implement free flow of news and to inform people of the truth; however, oppositions consider WikiLeaks as an illegal website for its releases of classified government information.
Supporters think governors have no authority to interfere where people gather information (Barlow 1996). To dig deeper why there are followers for WikiLeaks, the term “surveillance” should be mentioned. WikiLeaks places the state under surveillance limits and eventually leaves current day sovereignty obsolete. Supporters like Balazs believe that “WikiLeaks is a new sovereign in the global political and economic sphere.” To pursuit the new sovereignty, WikiLeaks has attracted some sponsorship. For example, a Sweden political party found in 2006 called Pirate Party has partnership with WikiL...
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...by “Anonymous” WikiLeaks Proponents not Anonymous
Balaz Bodo (2011)
You Have No Sovereignty Where We Gather –Wikileaks and Freedom, Autonomy and Sovereignty in the Cloud
Online at< http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1780519>
Gene Healy (2010)
Campaign against WikiLeaks is Lawless
Online at < http://www.cato.org>
Joann Loviglio (2010)
Philly Company Accepting Donations for WikiLeaks
Online at < http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=12352487>
Michael I. Niman (2010)
Wikileaks and the End of Democracy
Online at
Nancy Scola (2010)
WikiLeaks, Pirate Party Shake Hand Over Servers
Online at < http://techpresident.com>
Tina Wells (2010)
XIPWIRE Lone US Company Enabling Donations to WikiLeaks
Online at< http://www.huffingtonpost.com>
All above are consulted on Mar.23.2011.
...an Assange’s “Wikileaks”. John Stuart Mill was not alone in his belief that freedom of speech would lead to the truth. According to Wikipedia, John Milton suggested that restricting speech was not necessary because “in a free and open encounter” truth would prevail, and US President Thomas Jefferson argued that it is safe to tolerate “error of opinion… where reason is left free to combat it”. We too see Fredrick Siebert claim in “Four Theories of Press” the idea of free expression as being “self-correcting”. It is safe to say that we are at our most democratic position to date with regards to journalism and our access to information in the western world, yet the future of the press remains unknown. One can only hope that the “marketplace of ideas” continues to be useful to our growth and development, and doesn’t prove to be fatal to our press and its future.
Julian Assange’s website, WikiLeaks made global headlines in the last few years. Assange started out by leaking documents he had acquired over the internet about banks in various European countries. Chelsea Manning, Army Private at the time stationed in Iraq joined up with Assange and delivered to him thousands of classified documents that Manning, a military intelligence analyst had access to. Manning was in contact with a former hacker named Adrian Lamo who he asked advice of, advice whether or not he should leak the documents. Manning going against Lamo’s advice of not leaking the documents caused Manning to be arrested after Lamo turned him in for the leak. This was a major blow for Wikileaks who had just lost their major source of confidential documents from the United States government. Since 9/11, the United States Government has realized that information needs to be shared among intelligence agencies in order to thwart terrorist attacks. A side effect however is that information is no longer on a need-to-know basis which made it possible for Manning to leak it all out. After receiving this confidential information, Assange began to make this information available to media outlets. Assange’s actions were morally and ethically incorrect. He should not have leaked so many classified documents especially without redacting the names of informants whose lives could have been in danger. These documents leaked by Manning to Assange were meant strictly for the eyes and ears of those who were privileged to the information, not for the front page of the New York Times. WikiLeaks and Julian Assange threatened global security as they willingly and knowingly put lives of thousands at risk by allowing the bad guys an opportunity to a...
In early June 2013, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former defense contractor who had access to NSA database while working for an intelligence consulting company, leaked classified documents reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) is recording phone calls of millions of Americans along with gathering private data and spying foreign Internet activity. The Washington Post later broke the news disclosed PRISM, a program can collect data on Internet users. The leaked documents publicly stated a vast objection. Many people were shocked by the scale of the programs, even elected representatives were unaware of the surveillance range. A nationwide debate over privacy rights have been sparked. Although supporters claim that the NSA only does its best to protect the United States from terrorists as well as respecting Americans' rights and privacy, many civil rights advocates feel that the government failed to be clear about the limit of the surveillance programs, threatening Americans' civil...
Smith, Lewis. "Video: Edward Snowden Tells Oxford Students That Government Secrets Undermine Democracy." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
The WikiLeaks phenomenon has certainly appeared in the news many times over the last decade for a whole range of different reasons. The site now claims to host more than one million documents and a number of these have had many months of coverage. In this essay I will be taking a look at the effects felt from ethical, legal and social viewpoints.
Levy and Wyer point out through the use of language, facts and emotional appeals that internet privacy has, is and always will be prevalent. Levy’s article has a subtle, sarcastic quality to it but gives both sides of the story and thus more neutral than Wyer’s article. Wyer is clearly opinionated regarding the government invading society’s personal queries. Although both articles give facts, Wyer’s was able to give the audience more facts to compel his audience to action whereas Levy’s did not.
His website publishes anonymous news sources and whistleblowers. Its similar to Wikipedia on how its open to the public and anyone can post something on the website. Except WikiLeaks is news sources from people that post information on whatever is g...
Similarly some information are kept from being publicized to the whole world by the government. Wikileaks has done otherwise: material that they disclosed to the world was sensitive material that belonged to the g...
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the extent of the N.S.A breaches of American privacy and in doing so, became ostracized by the media and barred from freely reentering America, his home country.
"The uncensored, tantalizing, wondrous mind of the Internet shall be observed carefully. It is not so much about removing our privacy, it is about preserving our safety. Not having the government monitor search engines and ambitious websites is the error. With the constant threats of terrorism and our fate uncertain with the rise of murder rates and crime, we cannot afford not have them keep the Internet under surveillance.
HONG KONG - Edward Snowden, a United States computer programmer that is contracted to the Central Intelligence Agency usalitzed his high security level to reveal highly classified government secrets to the American people. Thanks to Snowden, the American people are learning how much access the government has to their private conversations. Through several media outlets, Snowden leaked that the CIA is gathering millions and millions of private telephone conversations of the citizens they serve, and had broken numerous privacy laws every year. The United States government manipulated the vulnerable state of their citizens after September 11, 2001 and passed the Patriot Act. Cleverly named, quickly passed, and all done in the name of national security and the betterment of American livelihood. President Bush signed away every American citizen right to personal privacy. While the government advertised that it would limit
The government gives each American citizen a set of unalienable rights that protect them from the government’s power. These rights cannot be broken, yet the government violates the Fourth Amendment daily to find ways to spy on the American public under the guise of protecting against terrorism. In 2007 President Obama said the American administration “acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our securities – it is not.” Americans need to understand that their privacy is worth the fight. The people need to tell their neighbors, their congressmen, and their senators that they will not allow their internet privacy to be violated by needless spying. American citizens deserve the rights given to them and need to fight for the right to keep them by changing privacy laws to include Internet privacy.
In May 2013, Edward Snowden, a consultant working for the National Security Agency, began copying documents on the agency’s domestic surveillance practices, which included spying on millions of American citizens. One program was called PRISM. Snowden supplied those secret documents to news outlets, and the following month the Guardian and the Washington Times released Snowden's published information on the NSA program that allowed real-time information collection on American citizens. A flood of information followed, and the US Government and the American people demanded to either hear more about it or have Snowden arrested.1
It is reasonable to argue that, governmental institutions or people with authority are subject to withhold a great deal of information from society. Many may argue that secrets are kept to ensure the safety of the nation. Thus, upholding the governmental duty of protecting the nation against possible threats. On the other hand, many believe that secrets may exist which violate our constitutional rights. Over the last year, Edward Snowden, has made headline news for leaking sensitive governmental information to the press. Edward Snowden is a 29-year-old high school drop-out, who was a tech specialist for the National Security Association. Snowden had discovered and later exposed the NSA for monitoring the nations e-mails, phone calls, and internet searches. As the allegations spread like wild fire, Edward Snowden sought asylum in Russia for one year. Snowden had a valid and justifiable reason to expose the NSA to the world because they were in violation of our fourth Amendment rights to unreasonable searches and seizures. The government called him a traitor, while others viewed him as a hero for exposing the government. Edward Snowden is a whistle blower because he felt that it is up to society to decide if governmental practices are just or unjust. Snowden does “express the highest respect for the law”, and he wanted to protect the right of privacy for American citizens.
Government secrecy can include personal files of government employees, tax records of citizens, sensitive records, operations to limit crime, or acts to advance democracy or secure national integrity – such information should never be available to the media or the public. However, when the same government masks extensive police powers, the generation of mass surveillance systems, control the mass media, increase security that limits freedom and information and official accountability wither the government becomes guilty of deception of the public. Therefore, total transparency in a democracy is not suitable, governments need confidentiality from the public. In a post-Snowden age, broad regulations permitting governments to collect data – “The NSA is forbidden to 'target' American citizens, green-card holders or companies for surveillance without an individual warrant from a judge.” – without public knowledge and held in check by the same power that controls the program is unjustifiable. Secrecy is embedded in the partnerships of trust and respect within the public; power is also held on the basis of secrecy. It is more about the set the rules and has the power within that knowledge rather than the information itself. The truth behind the collection of data is unknown to many and may remain that way for some