Wikileaks and Democracy

Legal paper investigating the drawbacks of The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014 and the Amendment Bill of 2015 and examining why a potential whistle blower would be inclined to choose a third-party internet platform over the existing, legitimate and statutory State mechanism. While the online whistle blowing route also comes with a critical catch for national security, the paper contends that domestic legislation ought to be strengthened to raise the levels of legitimacy and trust in the State.

Cet autre visage de Wikileaks qu'ont dévoilé les étranges échanges, entre les chevaliers BLANCS de la transparence, et Donald Trump Jr. Des échanges entre Donald Trump Jr. et le site de Julien Assange, Wikileaks, ont été révélés par le magazine The Atlantic, puis confirmés par le fils du président américain. Existe-t-il un projet politique qui se cache derrière l'idéologie de la transparence du célèbre site de fuites d'informations confidentielles ?

In Ancient Greece the Cynics based their philosophy on concepts of freedom, self-sufficiency and independence, practicing 'parrhesia', the act of speaking freely, even if it posed great personal risk. This paper looks at artistic practices that follow this ethos, and how artists might influence politics and society in doing so.

Este trabalho apresenta o advento do WikiLeaks e enfatiza o seu papel na luta pela transparência de informação na Internet. Atualmente, o WikiLeaks é usado tanto como um destino de compartilhamento de documentos como uma fonte de informação para estabelecer
uma ação estratégica contra a guerra do sigilo. Na Era da Informação, discute-se a confidencialidade dos recursos de tecnologia digital contra questões de interesses diplomáticos por parte dos governos. A contribuição do WikiLeaks no episódio Cablegate, abriu debates em torno da utilização de ferramentas alternativas de tecnologia digital e do jornalismo tradicional com táticas de ativismo na internet, causando mudanças na técnica e ética jornalística. Desde então, o WikiLeaks se tornou um ator crucial no atual cenário do jornalismo investigativo.
Palavras-chave: WikiLeaks. Cablegate. Ciberativismo. Internet. Transparência.

Ps.: Pág. 112-122 (pdf)

Este trabalho apresenta o advento do WikiLeaks e enfatiza o seu papel na luta pela transparência de informação na Internet. Atualmente, o WikiLeaks é usado tanto como um destino de compartilhamento de documentos como uma fonte de informação para estabelecer uma ação estratégica contra a guerra do sigilo. Na Era da Informação, discute-se a confidencialidade dos recursos de tecnologia digital contra questões de interesses diplomáticos por parte dos governos. A contribuição do WikiLeaks no episódio Cablegate, abriu debates em torno da utilização de ferramentas alternativas de tecnologia digital e do jornalismo tradicional com táticas de ativismo na internet, causando mudanças na técnica e ética jornalística. Desde então, o WikiLeaks se tornou um ator crucial no atual cenário do jornalismo investigativo. ABSTRACT This paper exposes the advent of WikiLeaks and emphasizes its role in the fight for transparency of information on the Internet. Nowadays, WikiLeaks is used as a destination document sharing and as a source of information to establish a strategic action against the war on secrecy. In the Information Age, it's been discussed the confidentiality of technology resources against digital diplomatic interests issues by government. The contribution of WikiLeaks in the Cablegate episode, opened debates on the use of alternative tools of digital technology and traditional journalism tactics of activism on the Internet, causing changes in the technical and ethical journalistic. Since then, WikiLeaks has become a crucial actor in current scenario of investigative journalism. INTRODUÇÃO Nunca a informação fluiu tão rápida e foi tão compartilhada como ultimamente. Até mesmo as informações confidenciais estão acessíveis a todos. Há, atualmente, uma grande discussão sobre privacidade na Internet. Isso porque, a Internet possibilitou um fácil acesso a

Despite the back cover declaring Lloyd Gardner’s The War on Leakers ‘the essential backstory to understand the Snowden case, NSA eavesdropping, and the future of privacy’, and its subtitle promising a study ‘from Eugene V. Debs to Edward Snowden,’ it would be inaccurate to describe this book as a historical work. Rather, The War on Leakers occupies a space at the cusp of history, similar to Gardner’s previous publication, Killing Machine: The American Presidency in the Age of Drone Warfare. By residing at the junction between current affairs, and what is yet to be classed as history in a traditional sense, Gardner demonstrates a skill for identifying pertinent topics, which are likely to animate historians for years to come. In doing so, he is able to take the opportunity to establish the initial narrative around these highly controversial and contested topics, setting a framework which future scholars will either build upon, or challenge. While this makes The War on Leakers a useful text for those looking to introduce themselves to the debates surrounding the likes of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, the role of organizations such as WikiLeaks, and the way in which the U.S. government has sought to challenge them – this contemporary focus also serves to limit the book’s overall utility.

Este año WikiLeaks, organismo que estableció un parteaguas definitivo en la historia del periodismo contemporáneo, cumple 10 años de existencia. De acuerdo con Andrea Montes Renaud [http://www.reporteindigo.com/latitud/wikileaks-hillary-eu], el martes 5 de octubre de 2006, el nombre de WikiLeaks “tomó su forma”.

En días recientes WikiLeaks una vez más logró despertar el interés de la prensa internacional, y no precisamente por los actos que ha programado para festejar su décimo aniversario.

WikiLeaks (WL) entered the global spotlight for publishing online classified documents which prompted a wave of public debates. However it also triggered a huge social mobilization in support of freedom of speech online and against online censorship.  Since the end of 2010, hundreds of people not directly linked to the core WL group joined the struggle: they provided technical support; they contributed to spread WL content by mirroring the website; they mobilized in support of WL, for example by attacking its ‘enemies.’ These mobilizations have sprung out of a renewed wave of cyberactivism and hacktivism.

WL has served as a catalyst for new forms of online collective action that point to an evolution of contemporary political activism. This chapter analyzes the significance of WL-related processes and events for contemporary online activism. It looks at WL through the eyes of internet activists, and sheds light on the features of contemporary cyberactivism in relation with societal norms.  For these groups, internet is a (cultural) laboratory for experimentation, where rules of real life do not apply. Activists constitute a subcultural community with loose boundaries but well-defined core values and behaviors. Whenever these values are under threat, activists react adopting transgressive and defensive tactics. Although cyberactivism as such is not new, its scale in the wake of the WL saga is unparalleled, and so is the awareness of the disruptive potential of hacking techniques. WL-related mobilizations have shown that cyberactivism can lead to significant results, as disruptive software-based tactics have an almost real-time impact. This activism might be a manifestation of a ‘new’ wave of movement activity that uses the internet as its main platform for action, recruitment and identification. The analysis is based on empirical data gathered through online participant observation and online asynchronous interviews with activists.

The Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, enacted in 1988 during the democratization process of the country after the end of an authoritarian regime preceded by several others that show a non-democratic tradition in the Brazilian Republic, remained still remnants an authoritarian Patronizing and Paternalist state, the example of the final part of the Article 5, item IV, which claims to be the free expression of thought, but forbids anonymity, prohibition which deserves to be rethought, especially on the internet, where the navigation data of people deserve protection, as well as their rights to remain anonymous, a fact which entails the need for reflection on the scope and how best to interpret the constitutional provision cited, a debate that, in the proposed article, will deal think the ideas of paternalism, authoritarianism and freedom, whose focus will be about within the Internet, social networks and the Knowledge Society.

In diverse nazioni – in testa gli Stati Uniti – le rivelazioni di WikiLeaks hanno tolto il sonno ai responsabili dell’intelligence e generato un acceso dibattito sul conflitto tra libera informazione e ragione di Stato. L’Italia ha proseguito nella sua infelice eccezione: la ricezione dei cablogrammi sul nostro Paese ha scatenato la solita opposizione tra berlusconiani e antiberlusconiani, facendo sì che tutto, ancora una volta, ruotasse intorno al grande one man show. Eppure l’antologia di WikiLeaks che viene qui presentata solleva un’unica tragica domanda: com’è stata possibile l’egemonia totale di un uomo così tanto potente in Italia, quanto grottesco, kitsch e impresentabile in qualsiasi altra parte del mondo? Si possono certo scomodare le lucide profezie di Guy Debord sulla “società dello spettacolo” o la surreale congiunzione di re e giullare dell’Ubu Roi di Alfred Jarry. Ma lo spaccato italiano che emerge da questi cablogrammi ci parla anche delle connivenze di numerosissimi cortigiani, figure di primo e di secondo piano che hanno agito per i loro interessi, protetti dal grande spettacolo del loro Capo.

Marco Marsili, giornalista, politologo e docente di giornalismo presso l’Università degli Studi dell’Insubria a Varese, spiega la storia di WikiLeaks e del suo leader Julian Assange, e guida il lettore attraverso la comprensione dei dispacci inviati a Washington dall’ambasciatore a Roma Mel Sembler (2001-2005) e dal suo successore Ronald Spogli (2005 - 2009). Ne Il Clown. Il meglio di Wikileaks sull'anomalia italiana (Mimesis Entropie, Milano, 2011, 10 euro) Berlusconi viene definito un leader “incapace, vanitoso e inefficace come moderno leader europeo”, intento a spendere le sue energie in feste notturne, le quali non gli permetterebbero di riposarsi abbastanza.

Critiche per una politica estera inefficace e ondivaga, basata sui rapporti personali di Berlusconi, anche con dittatori come Gheddafi o il leader bielorusso Lukashenko. Il rapporto tra Silvio Berlusconi e Vladimir Putin è oggetto di una attenta osservazione da parte dei diplomatici statunitensi. La loro relazione viene giudicata di natura confidenziale, anche a causa dello scambio di “regali generosi”, e foriera di redditizi contratti energetici tra Eni e il colosso russo dell’energia Gazprom. La descrizione data di Berlusconi è che “sembra essere il portavoce di Putin in Europa”. Gli Usa cercano, tuttavia, di avvantaggiare le forniture di aziende americane in vista della realizzazione del nuovo programma nucleare varato da Berlusconi (poi abbandonato in seguito al referendum) e spingono per l’inclusione delle strutture marittime italiane nel progetto Megaporti.

Forti critiche anche per l’abolizione dell’Alto commissario anticorruzione, decisa dal Cavaliere nel 2008, appena tornato a Palazzo Chigi, e sulla vicenda Alitalia: “Ha inventato una legge ad personam per ottenere un risultato politico. È una lezione per chi vuole investire in Italia”. Per mantenere le promesse fatte in campagna elettorale, di mantenere il vettore (che stava per essere acquistato dalla cordata Air France-Klm) in mani italiane, Berlusconi ne ha favorito la cessione a Cai. “La nuova linea area avrà un monopolio di fatto delle rotte interne italiane e i debiti e i passivi dell’Alitalia passeranno ora a una bad company avviata alla liquidazione ma tuttora di proprietà del governo” scrive l’Ambasciata Usa a Roma. Spogli ricorda come, nonostante il ministro dell’Interno Maroni si fosse detto contrario al salvataggio, “Berlusconi ha utilizzato le sue conoscenze personali e politiche per convincere un gruppo di imprenditori a impegnarsi nel ‘salvataggio’ della compagnia aerea e nel mantenere la compagnia di bandiera italiana”, favorendo la creazione di un gruppo di 16 investitori (definiti “compari” del premier) che hanno seguito il piano d’acquisto elaborato da Intesa Sanpaolo. Per venire in aiuto della cordata di amici, che hanno consentito al premier di fare bella figura, mantenendo la promessa fatta in campagna elettorale, il governo ha modificato la legge fallimentare, in modo da consentire alla società di essere divisa in due, con i passivi e i debiti per un miliardo di euro che restano nella “bad company” di responsabilità del governo italiano. Sul Carroccio un dispaccio relativo ad un colloquio tra il ministro Roberto Calderoli, il segretario della Lega Lombarda, Giancarlo Giorgetti, e il console generale di Milano, svela i piani del movimento per “diventare forza egemone nel Nord”, le speranze dello stesso Giorgetti di poter “alla fine succedere a Bossi come capo del partito”.

Parte della corrispondenza riguarda l’allora ministro della Difesa Ignazio La Russa, che non esita a mostrarsi più che accondiscendente nei confronti dell’alleato statunitense. “Si è descritto letteralmente come filoamericano” si legge in un dispaccio. “Ha fatto riferimento al suo coinvolgimento nell’ala giovanile del Movimento sociale italiano come esempio dei suoi sentimenti filoamericani. Ha detto che il movimento era diviso in due campi: uno filopalestinese e l’altro filoamericano (e filoisraeliano). Si è definito esponente di vertice del secondo”. La sua proposta di aprire per 30 giorni le basi per l’addestramento dei giovani, viene bollata dall’ambasciatore come odorante “un po’ di fascismo”.

I dispacci diffusi da WikiLeaks dimostrano inequivocabilmente la mancanza di autonomia politica del governo Berlusconi in politica estera, e l’asservimento del premier, interessato solo alle sue vicende processuali e alla sua immagine, alla volontà dei governanti stranieri, a discapito dell’interesse nazionale. Ne esce un’immagine di un esecutivo incapace ed inefficiente, mosso solo da interessi personali, sia di natura politica che economica o giudiziaria.

I possess a wide range of experience critiquing and editing academic literature including abstracts, articles, book chapters, proposals and thesis drafts. I have edited ESL work from international scholars and international PhD students from Brazil to Romania to Germany. I am currently Co-editing a Festschrift project from proposal to final manuscript, incorporating input from authors, consultants and reviewers. My editing services include copy editing, content editing, style editing and proof reading. Topics of expertise include, but are not limited to, Humanities Computing, Philosophy, History, Religion, Digital Humanities, Information Ethics, Philosophy of Information, Digital Citizenship, Global Citizenship, and Intercultural Information Ethics. Services available at www.jaredbielby.com

Asked to serve in an ongoing position as Editor for the International Review of Information Ethics, I join a team of seven editors for IRIE. "The IRIE is the official journal of the International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE). It envisions an international as well as intercultural discussion focusing on the ethical impacts of information technology on human practices and thinking, social interaction, other areas of science and research and the society itself."

As Chair for the International Center for Information Ethics, I am responsible for promoting and maintaining the founding vision of the academic community of ICIE, for managing its global-wide membership, its advisory board, and for attending to and updating global chapters, credentials, contacts, and communications.

Globalization via the digital age is upon us, demanding a new ethics and an intercultural awareness while the dialectics of globalism and cyberspace mandate a committed reflection on what the synthesis between the digital realm and global citizenship entails. In many ways, the borders that previously separated us as citizens physically and culturally have begun to dissipate, replaced by a call for an intercultural accountability and a form of global citizenship that, on one hand, surpasses borders, patriotism, and nationalism alike, but while on the other, demands an understanding and respect for the cultural idiosyncrasies among us, acknowledging the unique existential paradox of universal citizenship that posits each of us as both stranger and citizen on a commonly shared globe.

What is cosmopolitan in the digital age? Is a global digital citizen the same as merely a digital citizen? While talk of digital citizenship has increased in recent years, usually centered on a capitalist drive, encouraging a full electronic participation in society and a responsibility to digital commerce, many questions remain unanswered.  Is the netizen the citizen of a democratic state, and of digital democracy? As a citizen of the world interacting online, how will one’s “rights” and “duties” be determined? And are these “rights” universal, and in such a case, what does “universal” mean? What are the legal parameters of netizenship, and what will they be as globalization further takes hold? Is democracy critical to citizenship, or is it not? What are the political landscapes of global citizenship in the digital age? And last of all, is the concept of digital citizenship even tangible? Is it real?

The attempt to establish a unified taxonomy for the field of Information Ethics is both unattainable and unwarranted. The categorization of Information Ethics as a defined discipline, an applicable practice, a philosophy and a worldview remains constantly in flux due to, what Luciano Floridi terms, ‘philosophical naturalism’. As such, a broadening understanding of the field will only serve to further collapse categorization. The following paper will outline, using a discourse analysis methodology, how the nature of the field of Information Ethics at a foundational level must necessarily defy classification. The assumptions behind the current classifications of the field will be questioned. Beginning with the history of the inception of the field through Librarianship and Cybernetics and questioning the yet unresolved ontological debates between information philosophers such as Rafael Capurro and Floridi, this paper will explicate how any such attempt to develop an agreed upon taxonomy will and should always remain incomplete.