WikiLeaks | The enemy of the deep state

WikiLeaks | The enemy of the deep state

SUB: Science and tech

SEC: Awareness in IT and Computer

Context:

• The slow but sure process of extraditing Julian Assange, co-founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks from the U.K. to the U.S. took a firm step on Friday when the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, gave the go-ahead to the move.

More on news:

• Mr. Assange is wanted in the U.S. for criminal charges, including breaking the Espionage Act for WikiLeaks’ actions of leaking thousands of secret U.S. files in 2010.
• He could face punishment ranging up to 175 years in prison for violations of the Espionage Act.

What is Wikileaks?

• On its website, WikiLeaks says it is a multinational media organization that specializes in analyzing and publishing databases of censored or otherwise restricted materials involving wars, spying and corruption.
• It was founded by Assange in 2006 and lists several international media organizations among its co-publishers, research partners and funders.
• It is a not-for-profit organization that is funded through public donations.
• WikiLeaks is a giant library of the world’s most persecuted documents.
• The most controversial leaks by WikiLeaks featured classified U.S. military documents and videos from the war it waged in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early to mid-2000s that it said highlighted issues such as abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody, human rights violations and civilian deaths.
• While initially the website began as a disclosure portal on the lines of the Wikipedia model, with anonymous submissions being put up and edited by volunteers, it soon became a repository of anonymously sourced material.
• News and classified information could be uploaded on it using the anonymity software Tor, which protects the uploader’s identity from being eavesdropped on any network and even by WikiLeaks itself.
• One of the earliest revelations by Wikileaks was on how the U.S. government had been deploying practices at the Guantanamo Bay facility holding terror suspects that were in violation of the Geneva Convention protocols.