5 ms·

I very much approve of the 'idea' of WikiLeaks. I am not particularly fond of WikiLeaks as an organization. I don't like the way they hold on to material unti

I very much approve of the 'idea' of WikiLeaks. I am not particularly fond of WikiLeaks as an organization. I don't like the way they hold on to material until they think it will make the biggest impact. It makes me wonder how much they've held on to for other reasons, e.g., because it might harm someone they support. To me, WikiLeaks withholding information for political reasons is no better than the originator of the information keeping it secret for political reasons. I politely called them out on this once, in a comment on one of their early Facebook posts. The comment was deleted quickly. Apparently they are not fans of criticism either. In spite of my misgivings, and my general disdain for Assange as an individual, I too am glad to see the EFF taking a principled stance.

ryanlol 8y ago
>It makes me wonder how much they've held on to for other reasons, e.g., because it might harm someone they support. Has anyone ever tried to call them out on this by releasing a leak that wikileaks refused to publish? I don’t remember ever hearing such a claim.
- duxup 8y ago
  I don't know if anyone tried, but if you followed early tweets they talked a lot about having something that was damning and then ... never mentioned it again. Just taking them at their word you have to wonder what was up.
- chris11 8y ago
  This has definitely happened. Wikileaks refused to release info on Russia during the 2016 election. Wikileaks may have started out with good intentions, but it seems to be making some explicitly political actions. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-leaks-on-russian-government-during-u-s-presidential-campaign/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-l... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/europe/russian-documents-leaked-ddosecrets.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/europe/russian-docu...
  - ryanlol 8y ago
    Was that info any good? Haven’t really seen many stories about it.
  - whamlastxmas 8y ago
    There's plenty of legitimate reasons to not release information. Verifying the informations accuracy, that it hasn't been tampered with, and the source is credible is a really high bar to meet. Just because someone dumps data doesn't mean WikiLeaks is going to publish it
    - senectus1 8y ago
      So selectively Open Democracy but not Open Truth?
duxup 8y ago
I think a lot of people, including the media really liked the idea of WikiLeaks, me included.... until it became clear that whatever WikiLeaks was, it wasn't the the open and nobody gets a pass kind of leak site folks wanted it to be. But yeah whatever the situation here the law should be applied evenly. We'll see.

ryanlol 8y ago

>It makes me wonder how much they've held on to for other reasons, e.g., because it might harm someone they support. Has anyone ever tried to call them out on this by releasing a leak that wikileaks refused to publish? I don’t remember ever hearing such a claim.

duxup 8y ago
I don't know if anyone tried, but if you followed early tweets they talked a lot about having something that was damning and then ... never mentioned it again. Just taking them at their word you have to wonder what was up.
chris11 8y ago
This has definitely happened. Wikileaks refused to release info on Russia during the 2016 election. Wikileaks may have started out with good intentions, but it seems to be making some explicitly political actions. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-leaks-on-russian-government-during-u-s-presidential-campaign/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-l... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/europe/russian-documents-leaked-ddosecrets.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/world/europe/russian-docu...
- ryanlol 8y ago
  Was that info any good? Haven’t really seen many stories about it.
- whamlastxmas 8y ago
  There's plenty of legitimate reasons to not release information. Verifying the informations accuracy, that it hasn't been tampered with, and the source is credible is a really high bar to meet. Just because someone dumps data doesn't mean WikiLeaks is going to publish it
  - senectus1 8y ago
    So selectively Open Democracy but not Open Truth?

duxup 8y ago

I think a lot of people, including the media really liked the idea of WikiLeaks, me included.... until it became clear that whatever WikiLeaks was, it wasn't the the open and nobody gets a pass kind of leak site folks wanted it to be. But yeah whatever the situation here the law should be applied evenly. We'll see.