Hacktivism: WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks is a nonprofit media organization founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, Kristinn Hrdnsson, and Danial Mathews. The site is used to publish leaked documents from governments, corporations, and other large entities. Originally founded in Australia the organization eventually, in 2010, became registered in Iceland under the Sunshine Press Production ehf. This massive project was not a solo affair. The site was established with the help of journalists and activists all over the world with Assange sitting as a figurehead from whom the project started.
WikiLeaks began as a donation only based site but has since received funding through media partnerships and has even received legal aid from large media organizations. For example, Channel 4 paid over $100,000 for video clips from the Iraq War Logs. Later, in 2011, Wikileaks would begin auctioning data on eBay to keep up with rising operating costs. Over time the site has run into several issues with payments services due to it controversies and legal issues. Notably in 2010, their account on PayPal was suspended resulting in frozen assets. WikiLeaks has accumulated a laundry list of financial organizations who refuse to work with them including Mastercard, Amazon, Bank of America, and Visa Europe.
WikiLeaks is often considered a work of hacktivism because they focus on government transparency through obtaining classified or private documents and information. Some of their publications have been obtained legally while others, such as the Afghan war documents, were found to have been illegally gathered. WikiLeaks mostly receives information from volunteers which often include both legitimate journalists and hackers who are sending illegally acquired data. This is why the site is often seen as towing the line between journalism and hacktivism with many believing it to be both. It has become more problematic than other hacktivist groups because of its incredible reach and the negative effects of many of its publications which often implicate civilians and government and military officials. The publications that include classified information have also put the safety of many military members and civilians in jeopardy.
Roadblocks and Hard Times
The organization was quick to run into a plethora of issues. In 2007 an advisory board member of WikiLeaks, John Young, was dropped from the organization over his doubt about their fundraising goals. In turn, WikiLeaks was leaked. Young ended up publishing 150 pages of emails from the organization. By 2010 Wikileaks had run into a fundraising issue and had to temporarily shut down the site until costs were covered. Within a month they were back up and running. In October of 2010 the site was hacked just before a major leak that would later be known as Cablegate where the site leaked 274 classified cables. A diplomatic cable is a type of dispatch between a diplomatic mission and its parent country. It continued to be a rough year for the organization amid Assange’s response to sexual assault allegations and the resignations of many original WikiLeaks members. Assange's decision to release the Iraq War logs also played into the controversy the site faced. Assange also faced back-lash from WikiLeaks members over the Afghan war document release, with many expressing that the site has serious structural and security issues. Daniel Domscheit-Berg was among those resigning and took with him hundreds of documents and unpublished communications claiming that he didn’t trust the site’s security. The documents ended up being completely erased by Domscheit-Berg. They were said to have included the US No Fly List, information on neo-Nazi organizations, and Bank of America leaks. Video files of the Granai massacre were also in Domscheit-Berg's possession at the time. After leaving, he went on to establish OpenLeaks, a site with the same premise but a 'completely different internal structure.’
It has always been a heavily debated topic in the world of journalism as to whether or not WikiLeaks is journalistic at all. Some organizations, like Reporters without Borders, praise the site for its activism but criticize it for lack of internal control. The International Federation of Journalists has stated that they view WikiLeaks as an entirely new category of media. Individual journalists often take the stance that the site is merely a breeding ground for publications but cannot be journalistic because of its structure.
Major Leaks
The sites first leak in December of 2006 consisted of a document containing the plans to assassinate Somali government officials by a rebel group belonging to the country. The next year The Guardian published an article detailing political corruption in Kenya using information directly from WikiLeaks. In 2008 the site published the contents of Sarah Palins Yahoo email account provided to them by hacker David Kernell. In 2009 WikiLeaks published scientific reports on the 2006 Ivory Coast toxic waste dump by oil-trading firm Trafigura. The illegally exported waste caused several deaths and countless health problems after being dumped in Abidjan.
The Iraq war documents were leaked in October of 2010 and included 391,832 U.S. Army field reports. It still stands as the largest U.S. Military leak in history with documents spanning from 2004-2009 publishing the deaths of 109,000 people, 66,081 being civilians. This leak in particular was a massive deal not only because of growing death count but because the documents detailed horrible instances brutality and violence on both sides of the war. The leak led to even more public turmoil over the politics and implications of the war in Iraq.
Similarly, the Afghan war documents had been leaked early in the year and held the spot of largest military leak until the Iraq documents. In July of 2010, over 91,000 U.S. military documents were leaked to WikiLeaks. Most of the documents were war logs and were classified. Prior to publication, WikiLeaks made the documents available to three news outlets, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Spiegel. WikiLeaks also claims that they did not know the source of the documents.
In 2013 Wikileaks helped the infamous whistleblower, Edward Snowden, leave Hong Kong.
Later in 2016 Wikileaks placed major focus on Hilary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency. It is worth noting that for the entirety of the campaign trail, the site only published information on the democratic party, with Assange even publicly stating that he preferred the Republican Party win. This became a problem for many WikiLeaks members and journalists in general. There was a clear shift taking place. In the past ten years WikiLeaks was known not to take such distinct stands politically. Many believed that such a targeted attack went against their promise of transparency. Assange later said that the site was simply publishing the information made available to them.
Members and former members alike began to express serious internal issues with WikiLeaks in 2017 when correspondence between Assange and Donald Trump Jr. Were revealed. WikiLeaks had encouraged Trump Jr. to make a series of tweets which included a falsified Hilary Clinton quote about Assange, a link to a WikiLeaks search engine site, and a public push for Assange to be appointed as Australia's ambassador to the US. WikiLeaks made a statement that the allegations were ‘groundless and false’ further stating that they did not have such correspondence with any political candidates. Many speculated that the site may not have, but that Assange started the correspondence on his own.
Legal Issues
The first of many legal issues came to light in 2008 when the Julius Baer Group, located in California, sued WikiLeaks over leaked documents. These documents had shown the banks' involvement in money laundering and tax evasion in the Cayman Islands. Their goal was to have the documents removed from the site, but the case was dropped that same year after civil rights challenges.
In 2018 the Democratic National Committee filed several multi-million-dollar lawsuits, two of which were against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. These lawsuits alleged that the 2016 election had been disrupted in Trump’s favor by WikiLeaks. The lawsuit was dismissed with the judge stating that WikiLeaks was within their right to publish the information.
In 2019 Assange was arrested in Ecuador after his asylum was revoked by authorities. He served a sentence in London from 2019 to 2024 after he was found guilty of violating the United Kingdom Bail Act in the U.K. and the Espionage Act of 1917 in the U.S. Back in 2010 after the cable leaks, the US Justice Departments opened an investigation into Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. This battle becomes very complicated as it has been established that the Constitution protects ‘the republication of illegally gained information provided that publishers did not violate any laws in acquiring it.’ It was concluded by the Pentagon and the Department of Defense that the diplomatic cable leak and the Afghan War document leak both broke the law. In turn the Department of Justice subpoenaed Twitter for information on WikiLeaks accounts and later served Google search warrants for email accounts belonging to two WikiLeaks volunteers. Later in 2012 Google was again served warrants for more email accounts of WikiLeaks staff members. The case was ongoing until June of 2024 when Assange plead guilty to a single count of violating the Espionage Act in a plea agreement that led to his release. During the investigation the offenses including espionage, conspiracy, theft of property belonging the US. Government, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and criminal conspiracy, were all alleged against Assange and other members of WikiLeaks.
