ColdFusion - What is WikiLeaks?

Starting point is 00:00:00 You are watching Cold Fusion TV. Hi, welcome to another Cold Fusion video. Wikileaks has been making news around the world in recent years, but what is it exactly? In this video, we'll take a look. As a disclaimer, no, I'm not going to be talking about any political aspects or even talking about what the documents from WikiLeaks say. No political stuff in this video, this is going to be purely historical and factual.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Life is too short for Interpolical. is too short for internet fights. Let's get into it. In a nutshell, Wikileaks is a journalist organisation that publishes news leaks via its website. The leaks are from completely anonymous sources. The website was founded in Iceland in 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian computer programmer. Julian Assange has been a hacker since 1987 and was extremely good at his craft. In the late 80s and early 90s, while living in Melbourne, Assange managed to hack the Pentagon, US Department, Department of Defense, Navy, NASA, Motorola, Panasonic, Lockheed Martin and Xerox. In 1991, Assange was finally caught by the Australian Federal Police but was released

Starting point is 00:01:15 on good behavior and in a twist began helping the police in 1993. Julian was also involved in starting one of the first public internet service providers in Australia later that year. After a few ventures and some study at the University of Melbourne, Assange founded WikiLeaks. Lauren Julian and his current situation later. But back to Wikileaks. Wikileaks is run by volunteers from a number of countries and is a non-profit organization. In the past 10 years, they've released more secret documents than all of the world's media

Starting point is 00:01:45 combined, a title of 10 million. As a side note, Wikileaks has no affiliation with Wikipedia and the two shouldn't be confused. So what is the goal of Wikileaks? According to the WikiLeaks website, its goal is, quote, to bring important news and information to the public. One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of truth." Enquote. Wikileaks actually doesn't do any of the hacking or uncovering of sensitive information themselves,

Starting point is 00:02:19 but acts more of a middleman, passing on documents that were submitted to them, onto the press. Contrary to popular belief, the leaking of documents may actually be completely legal according to the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that the United States Constitution guarantees anonymity to those who reveal documents in the context of political discourse. Political discourse basically means the free conversation or discussion of political topics and issues. In other countries outside the US, such as China, parts of the African continent and the Middle

Starting point is 00:02:52 East, such leaks could be punishable by death. There have been several Supreme Court precedent cases where the American Constitution protects the publication of illegally gained information. if the publishers didn't break any laws to get it. This means that if someone broke the law to get a document and willfully gave it to Wikileaks, and Wikileaks then releases that document to the press, that's perfectly fine according to the Supreme Court.

Starting point is 00:03:16 It must be said that for Wikileaks to be protected under the US Constitution, it has to be treated as a US company. The organisation says that they analyse all the documents for genuine authenticity and have a 100% record of being accurate. This comes from the horse's mouth itself, So take that statement as you will. So how does it work? Wikileaks uses an online Dropbox system devised by Julian Assange.

Starting point is 00:03:40 The system provides a way to submit documents online and send them to a media organization anonymously. This anonymous Dropbox outlet is perfect for whistleblowers to email sensitive classified information without prosecution. For those who may not know, a whistleblower is a person who exposes illegal, unethical practices or corruption within an organization. Whistleblowers are usually from within or have close ties with the accused company.

Starting point is 00:04:05 The anonymity of WikiLeaks runs pretty deep. The traffic on the website cannot be tracked. This means that it's impossible to tell who's browsing the website at any given time. Wikileaks keeps close tabs on the details of the security, so I can't tell you exactly how it all works. The website has no official headquarters, but has web hosting in a former nuclear bunker in Sweden. There are other servers around the world, but the main one is in Sweden. This is mainly because Swedish law and its constitution is also protective over Wikileaks activities. Interestingly, Wikileaks used to be hosted on Amazon Web Services, which currently hosts other entities like the CIA, Netflix and Tinder.

Starting point is 00:04:44 If that sounds like a funny combination, watch my Amazon video, which will be linked in the description if you want to know more. Wikileaks ended up being kicked off Amazon servers due to a policy breach stating that they didn't hold the rights to their content on their site. While this is technically true, it does smell of an upper management decision from someone in Amazon who got cold feet. As most of you know, high up government officials, particularly in the United States, aren't happy with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. The way to deal with this is pretty simple. We've got special ops forces.

Starting point is 00:05:14 I mean, a dead man can't leak stuff. This guy's a traitor, a treasonist, and he has broken every law of the United States. The guy ought to be, and I'm not for the death penalty, so if I'm not for the death penalty, so if I'm not for the death penalty, he's only one way to do it, illegally shoot the subject. It's time that the Obama administration treats WikiLeaks for what it is, a terrorist organization, whose continued operations threatens our security. Shut it down, shut it down. It is time to shut down this terrorist organization, this terrorist website WikiLeaks.

Starting point is 00:05:43 Shut it down, Attorney General Holder. In 2010, there was a joint effort by MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Western Union, and Bank of America to choke off the funds to WikiLeaks. They managed to wipe out 95% of their funding. Wikileaks now relies on Bitcoin for donations. The US State Department specifically has been going after Julian Assange. They first tried to pin him with the Espionage Act of 1917, but this was difficult because of the First Amendment protection from the press.

Starting point is 00:06:13 They also tried to pin in charges on stolen property, but the documents are intellectual and not physical, so it didn't really go anywhere. Julian Assange is currently in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and cannot leave. without being arrested and taken to Sweden for questioning. The questioning is over sexual assault charges in which he denies and two of which have been dropped. If Assange is taken to Sweden, Assange states that he would be in danger of being sent to the US and fears that he would face the death penalty. In February of 2016, the United Nations stated that Assange had arbitrarily been detained

Starting point is 00:06:47 and that his detention should be brought to an end. The expert panel called on the Swedish and British authorities to end Mr. Assange deprivation of liberty, I think the recommendation is quite clear, respect his physical integrity and freedom of movement, and afford him the right to compensation. On October 17, 2016, after a series of damaging leaks in relation to the United States Democratic Party, Ecuador cut internet access to Assange. Considering he has been stuck inside this building for over four years now, you can understand that the internet for him, it's not just very important.

Starting point is 00:07:25 for his work as editor of WikiLeaks, it's also a vital lifeline, his only link, really, to the outside world. But a few hours ago, the official WikiLeaks Twitter account wrote a message saying that Julian Assange's internet link has been intentionally severed by what they said was a state party. With some saying that investigative journalism is now dead and that reported truth is a rarity, has been mass grassroots support for Assange and his organisation for being that middleman that has provided deep revelations of government to the press and to the public over the past decade. With a sign in limbo and the threat of more revealing leaks on the way, who knows what's going to happen next?

Starting point is 00:08:07 And with that, I'm going to end this video, so thanks for watching guys. It's pretty interesting what's going on in the world right now. Give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and leave a comment below sharing your thoughts. Also, feel free to subscribe to this channel if you've just stumbled across it. This has been to Gogo, you've been watching Cold Fusion, and I'll see you again soon for the next video. guys, have a good one.

ColdFusion - What is WikiLeaks?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.