WikiLeaks Has Worked. Stomping Your Feed & Wishing It Would All Just Go Away Is Completely Ludicrous

[Hissyspit]

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/12/06/does-wikileaks-represent-the-end-of-internet-history

Does Wikileaks Represent The End Of Internet History?

by Nicholas Deleon on December 6, 2010

Look at Matt Drudge, freaking out over Wikileaks‘ so-called “insurance policy” against Julian Assange’s arrest. READY TO LAUNCH “DOOMSDAY FILES,” Drudge screams. (Red font, too. All we need is a siren.gif and we’re in full meltdown mode.) And Doomsday for whom, exactly? I mean, as of today, all Wikileaks has done is to make available a number of documents that were already available to some 3 million Americans. So if this information is already available to 3 million of our fellow citizens, why not us? Is it wrong for the citizens of a republic to know what’s being done in their name around the world, or does the demand for transparency stop at your ability to stream Netflix movies unimpeded?

- snip -

More important than whether or not Assange releases the encryption key, or even what’s in the insurance file itself, is the idea behind Wikileaks. It speaks to the inherent openness of the Internet that so many mirrors have popped up in the last few days following the site’s repeated difficulties in staying online. The sheer notion that you can put Wikileaks back in its little bottle is hilariously naive.



It’s not unlike Napster in a sense. Once you’ve told people that you can do something (in Napster’s case, share music over the Internet), there’s really no way you can un-tell them you can do something. Try as you might, you cannot kill an idea. Just ask the RIAA.

- snip -

Wikileaks has shown the world that it’s entirely possible to hold governments accountable to their citizens. (A novel concept!) That numerous public servants have expressed outrage as a result of their actions being made available to the public they claim to represent perhaps speaks to their worth as public servants. The all-hands-on-deck reaction to the leaks can mean only one thing: they worked.

Which is to say that Wikileaks has worked.

And if Wikileaks is shut down—who honestly expects the Wikileaks organization to emerge from all of this completely unharmed?—then you can be certain that other organizations or entities will take its place. Maybe Wikileaks 2.0, or TwitterLeaks, or whatever form it takes, won’t have such a public face. (Surely there’s more to Wikileaks than Julan Assange, to say nothing of Bradley Manning.) Maybe it won’t host its servers in countries that so readily rolled over to governmental pressure? Maybe it won’t rely on services that are headquartered in the U.S., and are thus easy targets for ratings-driven talking heads and know-nothing blowhards?

More than anything else, it’s certain that Wikileaks represents a seminal moment in the history of the Internet. Closing your eyes, stomping your feed and wishing it would all just go away, is completely ludicrous.

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[DainBramaged]

1. Feed?

[pscot]

2. It's never been

a successful strategy. It gets the bread dirty.

[Hissyspit]

4. 'Feed,' as in information - Wordplay is deliberate:

[DainBramaged]

9. Got it, slow, sorry my friend, on Newegg, fogs my brain....

:hi:

[Luminous Animal]

3. Payback: Bank That Froze Julian Assange's Bank Account Has Now Been Taken Down By Hackers

Payback: Bank That Froze Julian Assange's Bank Account Has Now Been Taken Down By Hackers

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-bank-that-froze-julian-assanges-bank-account-has-now-been-taken-down-by-hackers-2010-12

[derby378]

5. Fuckin' A

This is what we call suiting the campaign to the terrain. Someone has apparently been reading Sun Tzu, and for that I salute them.

[Hissyspit]

6. Ha!

[Jamastiene]

10. ...

:popcorn:

This is getting interesting.

[shanti]

12. very

may i join you? :popcorn:

[stray cat]

7. Wikileaks has leaked you mean? Kind of like faucets work?

[Angry Dragon]

8. I personally welcome WikiLeaks

[Iterate]

11. "We are not heroes, we are asking you to become heroes."

Quote from Daniel Schmitt and Julian Assange in December 2009 at the 26C3 Conference.