We need to face facts: the governments of the entire world have joined forces to silence WikiLeaks.
It’s the first infowar: for the first time, on the Internet we are seeing attempted censorship on a global level at work. To counter them, the defenders of freedom on the net are going to join
forces in the entire world.
There are unequal forces pitted against each other: on the one side the powers of the State, the intelligence agencies which will do whatever it takes to silence Assange. On the other side the
WikiLeaks team and all the geeks on Earth ready to support it. Geeks from all countries, let us unite!
This information war will sign the beginning of a new era. Either the governments will achieve their aim of gaining control of the Internet, or
the geeks will manage to win this battle over freedom and the democracy of the future.
I’m interested to see if the newspapers that have been able to publish the WikiLeaks leaks, like Le Monde in France, will come out clearly for or against the governments’ censorship and their
underhand methods. With regards to methods, we have heard everything about those of WikiLeaks but we must keep in mind that: 1/ WikiLeaks only obtained data passed on by an American soldier and
additionally took the necessary precautions to protect the people mentioned in the American documents before disseminating them. 2/ The American soldier who passed on the information is inside,
and will be for quite some time.
The core of the debate is this- can governments legitimately censor the dissemination of information that annoys them?
If we were to apply this situation to the ancient world, the governments’ attempt to censor WikiLeaks would be comparable to the French government censoring Le Canard Enchaîné*. Unthinkable? And
yet ... the governments’ attempt is on the same scale as American power… that’s to say, massive!
First of all, sully and paralyze. An international arrest warrant was issued by Interpol for the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, for sexual assault allegations in Sweden.
This affair, which came to light following the last wave of revelations published on the site a few weeks ago, had been presented as a rape allegation. It turns out that the plaintiff is
complaining about the fact that apparently the condom tore whilst the two were having consensual sex. Assange really deserves to be on the list of the world’s most wanted criminals, doesn’t he?
It is fairly hard not to see the delicate hand of the CIA in collaboration with the Swedish authorities in this grotesque story.
Next, block. Attack the WikiLeaks’ servers so as to silence them, this is what is called ‘denial of service’... it’s all go ... all the CIA’s hackers are on it, and therefore the
WikiLeaks’ servers are down most of the time.
Eliminate. The American government put pressure on Amazon which hosted WikiLeaks. Amazon, obviously, gave in and WikiLeaks had to find another host...
(Update: since I wrote this article, we have also seen Paypal and a swiss bank closing Wikileaks accounts to make donations more complicated)
Evict. WikiLeaks had found a host in France, indeed in the ‘land of freedom’. Until Besson, (ex-Immigration Minister who has become the scapegoat for those against the
deportation of immigrants) decided to apply his old methods on his new ministry- digital technology: out you go WikiLeaks!
And there, I have to admit that I feel ashamed ... ashamed that this government- no more than the Swedish government- has not been capable of resisting against the pressure of the American
government, led by (let’s not forget) the well-known democrat, Obama.
To make sure that it is well protected, the American government has gone as far as killing the Wikileaks.org’s domain name! Now that’s a first!!!!!!!
Julian Assange has let it be known that he has sent documents to 10,000 people just in case anything should happen to him. Regardless of whether this is true or false, we can imagine that he had
already anticipated this information world war that he has set off. I am worried about him, they are more than likely going to catch him and lock him up, or will we find out that he has committed
suicide tomorrow morning?
The WikiLeaks revelations send a torrent of fresh air through the corridors of international diplomacy. Does that upset those in power? Let’s stick by Assange and his team!
We are all Julian Assange! (Or we would like to be!)
PS: The resistance is coming together: here is how to access WikiLeaks
P.P.S. more info
Translator’s note:
*Le Canard Enchaîné is an independent weekly satirical newspaper similar to Private Eye in the UK.
Pierre Chappaz
CEO Wikio Group
Translated by Lorna Miskelly
Illustration: Geoffrey Dome
