A wiki for leaking secrets

Thursday, 4 January 2007, 18:13

The discerning modern whistleblower knows that making a little public-interest disclosure no longer requires cloak-and-dagger games with journalists — these days, you can just post your revelations on YouTube.

But if that option doesn’t allow enough privacy, there’s always Wikileaks, a new service reported by Secrecy News.

Wikileaks which claims to offer “an uncensorable version of WikiPedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis”. The site’s creators told Secrecy News that it is aimed primarily at those working in repressive regimes, but could also be used by those in government or corporations in democratic states.

Although not yet fully live, the site already contains a document purportedly by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, leader of Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union.

There could be problems for something like this, though.

“In the absence of accountable editorial oversight, publication can more easily become an act of aggression or an incitement to violence, not to mention an invasion of privacy or an offense against good taste,” wrote Steven Aftergood, explaining why Secrecy News declined an invitation to serve on the site’s advisory board.

Accountable editorial oversight? How quaint.

Aftergood seems to be making the right call. As we saw with the Saddam hanging video this week, gatekeeping is over. There is no way to require “accountable editorial oversight” as a barrier to entry to the public sphere anymore — a determined leaker will find a way to publicise their material online. But that doesn’t mean a responsible journalist has to cooperate with a project that carries a high risk of being used irresponsibly and seems to abdicate all responsibility for the actions of its users.

Update: SpyBlog has some technical questions for Wikileaks.

Update2: Federal Times has a few more details.

Entry Filed under: Journalism, YouTube, wikis

11 Comments Add some more of your own

1. /public relations /media &hellip | 27 February 2007 at 1337

Why PR doesn’t do social mediaKick in the teeth over toothpaste adsPR Newswire and Technorati partnershipHow can blogs keep their editorial integrity while still making money? Journalists are PR schmucks, bloggers cut the hypeA wiki for leaking secretsPromoting computer-assisted reporting in BritainSarah?s Law and the ethics of database journalism
2. Dave Lucas&hellip | 7 January 2007 at 0144

services and news sites is providing a totally new environment for news distribution. Baghdad Connect makes an excellent analysis of the execution and the death penalty… “As we saw with the Saddam hanging video this week, gatekeeping is over”, blogs Martin Stabe: There is no way to require “accountable editorial oversight” as a barrier to entry to the public sphere anymore — a determined leaker will find a way to publicise their material online. But that doesn’t mean a responsible journalist has to
3. Spy Blog - SpyBlog.org.uk&hellip | 6 January 2007 at 1646

political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 1.1 million documents so far. We plan to numerically eclipse the content the english wikipedia with leaked documents. Martin Stabe and Secrecy News have serious reservations about the scheme. Some obvious questions which spring to mind about wikileaks.org: Are they serious ? Who are WikiLeaks ? How can they be trusted ?
4. Jornalismo & Internet&hellip | 6 January 2007 at 0958

revelar comportamentos anti-éticos ou questionáveis de seus governantes, mesmo em regimes ditos democráticos. Total segurança e anonimidade são oferecidas a quem postar material. Já antes do lançamento, o projeto vem recebendo críticas. Martin Stabe comenta que, como vimos no caso dos vídeos do enforcamento de Sadam Hussein, gatekeeping é algo do passado, o que não implica, no entanto, que jornalistas sérios devam apoiar um site como WikiLeaks, que se caracteriza por um alto risco de
5. Online Journalism Blog&hellip | 5 January 2007 at 1155

A wiki for leaking secrets
6. Watching Them, Watching Us | 6 January 2007 at 1708

WikiLeaks.org have now published some more details of what they are up to in their FAQ
7. Citizen Media Watch&hellip | 20 January 2007 at 2306

“Gatekeeping is over” – new wiki enables anonymous leaks…

A new wiki is being set up by Chinese dissidents in collaboration with mathematicians and startup company technologists, from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa. WikiLeaks will become “an uncensorable version of wikipedia”, …
8. The demand for on-demand &hellip | 2 July 2007 at 1322

[...] (or whatever you want to call site v feed v widget) view of statistics. • How to leak online Martin Stabe, who has to have the most impressive blogroll in the journosphere, has a good nugget on a new wiki [...]
9. Media/A wiki for leaking &hellip | 3 September 2007 at 1615

[...] Wikileaks Jump to: navigation, search MartinStabe.com: A Wiki for Leaking secrets Link http://www.martinstabe.com/blog/2007/01/04/a-wiki-for-leaking-secrets/ Country United Kingdom Date 2007-01-04 (Thursday) By Martin [...]
10. Spy Blog - SpyBlog.org.uk&hellip | 6 November 2007 at 1747

[...] Martin Stabe and Secrecy News have serious reservations about the scheme. [...]
11. Media/A wiki for leaking &hellip | 20 February 2008 at 1527

[...] Wikileaks Jump to: navigation, search MartinStabe.com: A Wiki for Leaking secrets Link http://www.martinstabe.com/blog/2007/01/04/a-wiki-for-leaking-secrets/ Country United Kingdom Date Thursday January 04, 2007 By Martin [...]

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