Most U.S. politicians and government officials are quick to claim that the United States is a free and open country. I wish that was true. In a free and open country the people have a right to know what their government is doing. They need to know this so they can make an informed decision when they go to the polls to vote. Voters can't be expected to make good decisions when information is kept from them by the government, and any information not required to be kept secret because of a compelling national security matter should be made public.
Some politicians have labeled the head of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange (pictured), as a traitor. Some have even asked that he be put to death or put in prison. That is patently ridiculous. Mr. Assange has done a favor for the American people and should be given our thanks -- not hounded and vilified. He has struck a valuable blow for free speech and open government.
Since the release of some of these documents, we have seen several attacks on WikiLeaks. Amazon kicked the site off of their server. PayPal, MasterCard and VISA have cut them off. And EveryDNS has refused to translate their organizations address into an IP address (which is necessary for anyone to find them on the internet). This is an effort to drive them off the internet and silence their website, and it was done because of pressure from the United States government.
When he was campaigning for president, Barack Obama promised to have a more open and transparent government than previous administrations. It doesn't look like he really meant that. The efforts by his administration to shut up WikiLeaks and kick it off the internet is nothing less than an effort to censor the internet -- something that should never happen under any circumstances.
This should scare the hell out of anyone who has a website or a blog or anyone who uses the internet to get news and information. If WikiLeaks, whatever you may think of them, can be censored, then anyone or any organization can also be censored. Anyone who says something the government doesn't like can be censored. This is what countries like China do. Do we really want our government doing that?
WikiLeaks is luckier than most people with websites or blogs. They were big enough to establish servers in 14 different countries -- making it much harder for any single government to shut them down (even the United States government, as powerful as it is). Most internet writers and users are not that big, and are really at the mercy of the United States government. These people should be very worried by these first steps by the U.S. government toward establishing a policy of internet censorship.
The United States government (or any other government) is wrong to try to censor any part of the internet for any reason. It is an attack on free speech and freedom, and must not be tolerated.
This is a great take the organization. I agree with you ideologically; I think on the whole they are a good organization, most of the stuff they have released in the past was justified in being leaked, ESPECIALLY Collateral Murder. However, pragmatically, I don't think our government's pursuit of him has any huge implications for journalism as we know it. I mean think about it, how much different of a society would we be living in right now if an organization like WikiLeaks was releasing our government's classified stuff and they just sat back and allowed it?
ReplyDeleteI totally get what you're saying, and I'm with you. But pragmatically, I don't have a problem with the U.S.'s pursuit of Assange simply because I know he never wouldn't be pursued.
I've gotten good at not letting things like this make me mad, even though I don't agree with them. :P
Great blog btw!
Good info. Internet censorship is that okay or not? I can't think so. Because I feel that its good and some way it’s not good, its kill of freedom on internet. Each rule has some pops and cons as like internet censorship
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