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The task of our project is to analyze how WikiLeaks plays into the political economy of the internet. We will question the relation to capitalism, surveillance and censorship, and the power of alternative media in opposition to the mainstream. We will look at how participatory democracy can be enacted through the internet, as well as the challenges that come with living in a society that lives under surveillance and censorship.

[mcs164wikileaks]

What is Wikileaks

Wikileaks is a non-profit organization that began in 2006 when an Icelandic organization known as the Sunshine Press started the database online. The website was created by Julian Assange, a member of the Sunshine Press. Julian Assange is one of the only names to be released of who is behind Wikileaks. Assange does all of the media outlets when it comes to discussing Wikileaks and the secrets files that it releases to the world. There are three other known people that have connections with the website and they are Kristinn Hrafnsson, Joseph Farrell and Sarah Harrison, but they stay behind when it comes to talking to the media.   

The goal of Wikileaks is to deliver news and information to the public that would otherwise not be accessible. This is where many volunteers all around the world step in. Volunteers are a big part of Wikileaks since it is a non-profit organization and they rely on these people around the globe for fact checking and also for leaking secret files and information. Wikileaks also gives these volunteers a secure and completely anonymous way to leak the classified information to the public.

Since the start of Wikileaks they have released hundreds of classified files to the public. Among them was the Baghdad Airstrike video in 2007 that was released to the public in 2010. It is known as the Collateral Damage video. Which shows the gunning down of two journalists thought to be carrying weapons. Also released in 2010 was the Iraq War Logs, which was hundreds of classified files on the Iraq war. In 2011 Wikileaks published 779 secret files that were involving prisoners that were held in Guantanamo Bay. These are just a few of the bigger classified items that they have published over the years and they are still pushing information out to the public

- Aaron King

[the5thestate]

You can’t change the world without crashing the system. Watch the new trailer for The Fifth Estate and see the movie in theaters October 18.

[mcs164wikileaks]

Trailer for the move The Fifth Estate, inspired by the real life events of Wikileaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange. 

According to Yahoo! Movies, Julian Assange said the following when he allegedly read the screenplay for the film:

"The Fifth Estate" is "a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff," said Assange in a video addressing an Oxford Union debate on Wednesday night. He told students the film was "fanning the flames" of war since, he claims, it starts inside a military complex in Iran with the suggestion a nuclear bomb is being built.

The official Wikileaks twitter account tweeted the following message with a link to the trailer of the film on Youtube.

"The Fifth Estate" trailer has just been released. Don't be fooled. It implies we gave Iran nukes and killed 2,000 http://t.co/9xs1f0T8il

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks)

July 17, 2013

The film flopped at box offices, heralded as one of the worst debuts of 2013, and received a mixed to unfavorable reaction from critics and audiences. 

-Vikram Sangha

[mcs164wikileaks]

Public Sphere

Public Sphere: "a discursive space in which individuals and groups congregate to discuss matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment." (Habermas) 

Public forum of debate

Scrutiny of government/those in power

Promotes transparency

Enact political change

Access available to all citizens

Media as Public Sphere Media is the 4th pillar of democracy, and has a duty to provide the public with information. Should act as a non legal judiciary force.

How should media/journalism operate?

1. Provide rigorous account of those in power and those seeking power, across both public and private sectors

2. Infrastructure to separate truth from lies and hold wrongdoers accountable and affecting the masses

3. Regard needs of all people as legitimate, providing information and education to those without power and privilege 

4. Produce a variety of informed opinions, provide information in a commonly understandable fashion*, and act as an early warning system for potential crises. (McChesney 2013)

In our current state of media, quality and vetted information is not readily available, and therefore informed debate not accessible. *(0:18-0:58) Julian Assange speaks on the importance of interpreting information for the Wikileaks audience

Internet as Public Sphere A number of writers have identified the possibilities created by the Internet and digital media technologies to develop a virtual public sphere, due to features of the Internet such as:

The scope for greater horizontal or peer-to-peer communication;

The capacity for users to access, share and verify information from a wide range of global sources;

The lack of governmental controls over the Internet as a global communication medium as compared to more territorially based media;

The ability to form virtual communities,or online communities of interest, less constrained by geography;

The capacity to disseminate, debate and deliberate upon issues

To challenge professional and official positions

(Rheingold, 1994; Poster, 1997).

Wikileaks as Public Sphere

“Publishing improves transparency, and this transparency creates a better society for all people. Better scrutiny leads to reduced corruption and stronger democracies in all society’s institutions, including government, corporations and other organisations. A healthy, vibrant and inquisitive journalistic media plays a vital role in achieving these goals. We are part of that media.”

(WikiLeaks 2011: paragraph 8)

-Vikram Sangha

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The Ethics and Power of Wikileaks

Pros of anonymity granted through Wikileaks:

Protection from physical harm through individuals who would resort to violence to protect classified materials

Protection from job termination should a company discover the whistleblower

Protection of overall reputation

Cons of anonymity granted through Wikileaks:

Incomplete context of leaked documents—The overall context with which the leaked documents were taken from could interpretation issues.

Questionable motive:  why is the individual leaking out such documents?  A host of ulterior motives could exist such as: retaliation from a disaffected worker, a way in which to enhance one’s career prospects by removing superiors from their positions, political and financial opportunism, and mischief.

On Secrecy

Without confidentiality, sensitive matters are difficult discuss.  Thus there is a certain need for undisclosed materials, such as those materials relating to the department of defense, else actual lives may be put in danger.

The possibility of leaking information under oath bears moral complications on an individual level.

An example of leaked documents are Afghanistan and Iraq’s “War Logs” where hundreds of thousands of military dispatch notes were released to Wikileaks. 

Outrage of public officials ensued:

Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich said wikileaks is guilty of acts of treason Knopfelmacher, F. (1976). The Ethic of Responsibility in Liberty and Politics, Owen Harries (ed.), Pergamon Press, 1976, 18-47.

Tom Flanagan, former adviser to Canadian Prime minister Stephen Harper said Assange should be assassinated  Lee, D. and Harding, L. (2011). WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy, The Guardian, New York: Public Affairs Books

US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel called Assange a “high-tech terrorist” who is damaging the U.S. Marlin, R. (2002). Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press

Wikileaks holds political power

Wikileaks chooses what leaked documents to release.  This leaves room for possible bias toward a certain organization or specific political ideals in which to lead the public.

Wikileaks chooses the media outlet with which to leak their highly-controversial and thus possible headline-news busting information.  Such allows even further bias because this could imply that Wikileaks leaks can be bought off or sold to the highest paying media outlet.  

-William Akana

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Pros & Cons of Internet Activism

PROS

- More voice, more participation

The platform and accessibility of the Internet allows users to actively participate in activist-related activities.

- Ease of communication between organizers and supporters

The Internet provides a more convenient way to communicate among each other and assists in organizing meet-ups and other kinds of information efficiently.

- Protects activists in fear of confinement

Typically, traditional activists deal with the risks of damaging their health and lifestyle since it is done in person. Unlike traditional activism, Internet activism provides a way to communicate and speak their voice more confidently in a way that will not hurt them and/or others.

- Global community → bigger influence

As more participation rises among the Internet activist community, so does the global community. With that being said, the power becomes greater in numbers.

  CONS

- Information sometimes inaccurate

The Internet provides information within a millisecond, but sometimes the information provided is not authentic or credible.

- Unintended Support

Supporters feel like a part of something by clicking a mouse. As the Internet becomes a more convenient platform to join activist movements, some users take the convenience in the wrong way. For instance, one can look at the Kony 2012 Movement, where most people believed that ‘Like’ing a their Facebook page would help their movement. The purpose of Internet activism is far beyond clicking a mouse.

- Unreliable

It is difficult to distinguish and separate the most accurate information from the false and biased opinions that people deemed as true.

- Depersonalizes the supporters

Traditional activism usually is comprised of a ‘face’ however in Internet activism, that is not the case. Several people participate in a certain movement and it is not simple to put a ‘face’ on a movement if it is done indirectly among Internet users around the world. 

-Madelaine Eata

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Alternative Ways of Connecting/New Media

In our research we came across various tools and technologies that work to advance our lives by providing us with more protection and anonymity in our online interactions. Below is a short explanation of each item as well as a video that will explain the technology or tool in much greater detail.

TOR- (The Onion Router) TOR functions to allow you to surf the darknet anonymously as well as the regular web. This is useful for people whose governments have placed restrictions on their browsing abilities as well as for people who wish to anonymously host a website without legal repercussions.

Dark Mail Dark Mail, much like darknet, came about from programmers who felt that the internet and more specifically email was not anonymous enough. The project was placed on Kickstarter in order to be funded and was successfully funded. It allows for completely anonymous emailing that still functions to contact unencrypted email clients.

Bittorrent Bittorrent is a way to somewhat anonymously share files that are distributed across a vast network of clients called a swarm. You can share any file you wish which has led to much criticism because of the illegal use by most people.

VPN - Virtual Private Network VPN’s allow for people to use the internet (emailing, watching videos, general surfing) while acting as another user. To those that are potentially be watched, this is a good way to protect some anonymity.

Bitcoin / Litecoin Bitcoin and Litecoin are cryptocurrencies. They are a form of currency that are completely digital and have no form of monetary backing (gold, silver, or otherwise). They are also completely anonymous and allow for the purchase of illegal goods and services without being tracked.

-Travis Brown

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Participatory Democracy and Wikileaks

My argument for whether or not Wikileaks promotes participatory democracy starts with what exactly is participatory democracy.  The basic definition is the process of emphasizing participation towards or against political systems. The occupy movements , for example, were an attempt to combine equality with mass participation. Though this is a very slow means of participatory democracy, there are quicker more involved forms. Another low profile example that was much more involved, happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A thousand ordinary citizens were part of a committee in the drafting and approving of the rebuild plans for their city in the wake of the destruction.

So having given this information, the question of whether or not Wikileaks promotes this idea of mass participation arises. My argument falls in between. While Wikileaks does provide information that would otherwise be unavailable to the general public, it does not ask them to go out and protest against the issue at hand. It merely puts the information out there for the individual reading to do with it whatever they please. I would say, however, that it definitely encourages the idea of participatory democracy, and definitely harbors the information necessary to educate people. In a metaphorical sense, it provides the flame to light the fire.

The whole point of Wikileaks is to bring forth information hidden, Wikileaks does not act like any of news program. Most mainstream news source are notoriously biased, FOX news for example being notoriously right of the spectrum. They broadcast the news based on what would please the government . The news would never be seen promoting someone that opposes the government in a positive way. Major dissidents such as Edward Snowden, are turned into treasonous monsters through the use of the media. All Snowden did was release documents the government did not want the public to see, which then brings forth the question as to why are they hiding information? The political economy of the media has caused portrayal of individuals such as Edward Snowden to instinctively be negative.

-Joey Levell