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AP: Private lives exposed by Wikileaks

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giga

Member
CAIRO (AP) -- WikiLeaks' global crusade to expose government secrets is causing collateral damage to the privacy of hundreds of innocent people, including survivors of sexual abuse, sick children and the mentally ill, The Associated Press has found.

In the past year alone, the radical transparency group has published medical files belonging to scores of ordinary citizens while many hundreds more have had sensitive family, financial or identity records posted to the web. In two particularly egregious cases, WikiLeaks named teenage rape victims. In a third case, the site published the name of a Saudi citizen arrested for being gay, an extraordinary move given that homosexuality is punishable by death in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom.

"They published everything: my phone, address, name, details," said a Saudi man who told AP he was bewildered that WikiLeaks had revealed the details of a paternity dispute with a former partner. "If the family of my wife saw this ... Publishing personal stuff like that could destroy people."

WikiLeaks' mass publication of personal data is at odds with the site's claim to have championed privacy even as it laid bare the workings of international statecraft, and has drawn criticism from the site's allies.

Attempts to reach WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were unsuccessful; a set of questions left with his site wasn't immediately answered Tuesday. WikiLeaks' stated mission is to bring censored or restricted material "involving war, spying and corruption" into the public eye, describing the trove amassed thus far as a "giant library of the world's most persecuted documents."
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-08-23-03-39-48
 
T

The Jackdog

Member
Assange honestly sounds like Trump recently with the whole "we have so much more on clinton, believe me" line he's been touting.
 
P

Patryn

Member
Wikileaks' actions make a lot more sense if you take into account the theory that they are either directly controlled by Russian intelligence agencies, or are being exploited by such to advance Russian goals.

Even the outing makes sense given the context, as Russia is hostile towards LGBT rights and people.
 
S

SliceSabre

Banned
Funny that the same people who hail Wikileaks are the same types who hail online privacy rights and seems to be totally ok with someone's online and life privacy being violated if it is tenuously related to government work no matter how innocuous that work may be.

"For him the ends justify the means," she said.
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Crazy that a person fighting against government secrecy, who tend to use the same argument, has a mentality like that.
 
A

aeolist

Banned
CqgU3MuWEAAdZNL.jpg
 
K

Kyzer

Banned
is everyone having no privacy considered crazy liberal or crazy conservative on the political spectrum? theyre such a confusing entity

what are they fighting for anymore? trump ?
 
O

Oersted

Member
kavanf1 said:
A view generally espoused by people who don't think through consequences very well. It's all cool as long as they're exposing *insert thing you disagree with*.
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Well yes, that is how it works. Some things,like the murder of innocent people trough a helicopter strike, should be exposed.
Rape files should never be exposed.

Thats how it always worked.
 
M

moffattron9000

Member
Current Wikileaks is this depressing shell of an endeavour that forgot what it was trying to do in the first place. I have to imagine that there still are decent people involved in it; so I hope that the can try to make a competitor that doesn't peddle anti-Semitic bullshit.
 
C

Carcetti

Member
In a perfect world the embassy would throw Assange out or a swat team would just extract him.

The world needs whistleblowers but clearly it's not these people we need.
 
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Patryn

Member
Kyzer said:
is everyone having no privacy considered crazy liberal or crazy conservative on the political spectrum? theyre such a confusing entity

what are they fighting for anymore? trump ?
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I believe it kind of falls on both, in that weird place where the far left and the far right mingle.

Although I think it's much more often seen as a far right Fascist ideal.
 
M

mieumieu

Member
Kyzer said:
is everyone having no privacy considered crazy liberal or crazy conservative on the political spectrum? theyre such a confusing entity

what are they fighting for anymore? trump ?
Click to expand...

Extreme left and extreme right are cut from the same cloth.
 
kavanf1

kavanf1

Member
Oersted said:
Well yes, that is how it works. Some things,like the murder of innocent people trough a helicopter strike, should be exposed.
Rape files should never be exposed.

Thats how it always worked.
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The point is, someone somewhere thought there was value in releasing this stuff. Proponents of Wikileaks come in all shapes and sizes. Its use can be co-opted by anyone, with any agenda. The concepts of journalistic standards, integrity, confidentiality, exist for reasons and they aren't all about keeping people in the dark. When these things are foregone for the sake of transparency, there will be side effects, as demonstrated in the OP. That is what I mean about not considering the consequences.
 
D

diaspora

Member
including rape victims, sick children, and the mentally ill, according to a report published today by the Associated Press. In its analysis, the AP found that the transparency group published medical files on "scores" of innocent people, and that it "routinely" publishes other sensitive information that can be exploited by criminals, including identity records and phone numbers.
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yeeeeeeesh
 
T

toadsworth

Banned
I was a pretty big fan of Wikileaks back when they started. Now, not so much. Assange is clearly trying to push his own agenda and its got nothing to do with free speech.
 
T

Toxi

Banned
I for one am shocked. Who would have expected a site that posts information given to them by Russian criminals would hurt people?
 
d00d3n

d00d3n

Member
aeolist said:
CqgU3MuWEAAdZNL.jpg
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Just to clarify, wikileaks aren't Trump supporters, just disgruntled Bernie fans who would see the world burn over having Hillary run the US. See the recent episode of Real Time With Bill Maher that featured Assange to get clear signs of this.
 
A

aeolist

Banned
d00d3n said:
Just to clarify, wikileaks aren't Trump supporters, just disgruntled Bernie fans who would see the world burn over having Hillary run the US. See the recent episode of Real Time With Bill Maher that featured Assange to get clear signs of this.
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at this point in the election cycle that means they support trump

and "people who want to see the status quo in flames" have always been a major part of his constituency
 
T

Toxi

Banned
d00d3n said:
Just to clarify, wikileaks aren't Trump supporters, just disgruntled Bernie fans who would see the world burn over having Hillary run the US. See the recent episode of Real Time With Bill Maher that featured Assange to get clear signs of this.
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I'm not sure why you're making a distinction between that and a Trump supporter.

Also, their support of Trump likely has more to do with being glorified Russian propaganda than personal ideology.
 
T

Toxi

Banned
TheMan said:
i think they're chaotic neutral- "information wants to be free" and all that, regardless of who gets hurt
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Wikileaks isn't "chaotic neutral". They don't release all information, just the stuff that supports their agenda.
 
S

Slurpy2k20

Member
Fuck Assange. Amazing how people get fooled with his holier-than-though horse-shit. He has an agenda, like everyone else, but worse than that he doesn't care whose lives he fucks up, in pursuit of his bullshit "transparency" cover.
 
K

kirblar

Member
d00d3n said:
Just to clarify, wikileaks aren't Trump supporters, just disgruntled Bernie fans who would see the world burn over having Hillary run the US. See the recent episode of Real Time With Bill Maher that featured Assange to get clear signs of this.
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They're not Bernie fans. They're Putin's attack dogs.
 
T

Toxi

Banned
It's hilarious and sad looking at the Left's old hard-on for Wikileaks.

Rational Wiki page on Wikileaks in 2015 (Yes, they were seriously telling people to donate to Assange's defense fund)

aqZkjVa.jpg


Rational Wiki page on Wikileaks now

kA2Zr8T.jpg
 
M

minor effort

Banned
Lately Wikileaks has been doing a stellar job of proving it's a credible organization. Their Twitter account is now linking to Vince Foster conspiracy theories from the Daily Mail.
 
D

Dr.Acula

Banned
This is why I feel movies about Assange, Snowden, etc. are released way too soon. History isn't written until decades after.

The Bush movie by Oliver Stone didn't even mention sub-prime, Enron, or all the other economic disasters Bush oversaw, which if they made that movie today would be a larger focus I feel like, and 10 years from now might be about the patriot act.
 
D

Debirudog

Member
they are not heroes as far as I'm concerned. What they're doing is out of malicious intent.

Wikileaks needs to be taken down. Somehow...
 
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