William Neuheisel

I recently came across a very interesting idea. The basic concept is that a website called Wikileaks would provide a Wikipedia type platform for sharing leaks, while preserving the anonymity of the leakers. Supposedly the site would wash any identifying IP’s and ISP information and would be accessible to non-technical users. The stated goal is to bring transparency to

“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.”

This is theoretically a GREAT idea, and I love the thought of using collaborative media to tackle authoritarian regimes. However, I am highly skeptical. The potential for slander, rumor, and hate-mongering (say for example, someone posted a false leak to stir up racial or ethnic tensions) is bit off-putting. The sites FAQ claims that such abuse would be counteracted by other users in the same way that Wikipedia is self-policed by its users. This sounds good in theory, but even Wikipedia has not had stellar success in this area. And Wikipedia has a large base of people who are attracted by what Wikipedia does for them; it provides information that is useful for anyone. It is hard to see how your average person will find much reason to visit Wikileak, meaning that its users could turn out to be a rather immoderate group.

And of course these governments could possibly post their own disinformation on this forum. If it is truly anonymous, then the Chinese or Burmese governments could just as easily post as could a dissident. The worst offenders would simply block access to the site, as they already do for much less anti-authoritarian sites.

The site hasn’t launched yet, so we’ll have to wait and see. I hope I’m wrong on this one, but either way it will tell us something interesting about the limits of wiki driven social change.