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Wikileaks — Anonymous Whistle-Blowing

Posted by kdawson on from the weapons-of-mass-conscience dept.

too_old_to_be_irate writes to tell us about a site that word got out on before they were ready. Wikileaks aims to be an anonymous and uncensorable repository of leaked documents, posted for commentary by interested parties. It's expected to go live in a month or two. From the site: "Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable version of Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum 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 from dissident communities and anonymous sources."

9 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. uncensorable, etc WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "word got out on before they were ready."

    anybody else want to raise the B.S. flag?

    "It's expected to go live in a month or two."

    and die about a month PRIOR to that.

    " We have received over 1.1 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources."

    You mean folks that bitch and UNRELIABLE sources?

    "Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact"

    Tell me, how is this going to be any different from any other site pushing a political agenda?

    "We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people."

    How does political impact have anything to do with your interface being like Wiki?

    Oh, and BTW doesn't

    "leaked documents"

    mean leaked documents? Ones that are already 'out of the closet'?

    I guess I just don't get how this got our attention.

    1. Re:uncensorable, etc WTF? by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with non-technical documents is that they rarely contain actual data or fact to justify the wild claims. Making them great for politics and politicians, but worthless for genuinely smart people to make good decisions.

      On the other hand, god help the world if defect tracking databases (or issue subsets) were made public on this. Any bug you ever had could become a lawsuit if it could be construed to have caused financial loss. The world would grind to a halt.

  2. One word was missing - verifiable by drGreg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This looks like an ideal place to spread FUD and provide a fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theories.

  3. Anonymity Networks by delirium+of+disorder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    According to the FAQ
    For the technically minded, Wikileaks integrates technologies including modified versions of FreeNet, Tor, PGP and software of our own design.
    If they don't release the source for their custom/modified anonymity network, how do we really know it works?

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  4. 2 big problems by ILuvRamen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. they're gonna get their asses sued nonstop because DUH most will be illegaly leaked
    2. Anyone can make up anything but unlike wikipedia, you can't just go and check and see if it's true somewhere because it's supposed to be classified and leaked so nobody knows about it. Everyone can deny everything and everyone can say everything is true and nobody really, really knows. I bet politicians will "leak" things about their opponents and opposing parties and all sorts of made up BSing situations like that

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  5. One Word by Penguinshit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    HONEYPOT

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    I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...

  6. Re:abuse of moderation by Columcille · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If that wasn't a warning, I don't know WHAT it was

    It was a very true statement - people DO need to be careful about what they say. For those whose mouths tend to be heard, one offhand comment can spark riots around the world.

    --
    I love my sig.
  7. Re:abuse of moderation by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It was a very true statement - people DO need to be careful about what they say. For those whose mouths tend to be heard, one offhand comment can spark riots around the world.

    You're blaming the messenger. Especially given my example what you're doing here is suggesting that it's better to cover up abuses than to let their natural consequences occur. You are a tool of the entrenched power structure.

    It's better to have a shakeup and solve the problem than simply let it continue, which in the final analysis ends up having hurt a lot more people.

    The implication in your statement is that the truth is less important than the status quo.

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  8. Re:abuse of moderation by mwlewis · · Score: 5, Insightful
    You're blaming the messenger.

    No, you're misinterpreting the messenger. Remember, those allegations were false, yet there were riots about them, and people were killed. He was basically saying that you shouldn't yell fire in a crowded theater. And how many of those people who said things that resulted in those people being killed are in Gitmo? Please remove the tinfoil and join us in the real world.

    It may not have been a troll, but it was pretty dumb.

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