Making the Wikileaks Site More Active Again (and Gradually Exiting "X" or Other Social Control Media)
As soon as Assange got kidnapped (his digital equipment then exported to the US) the Wikileaks Web site reached a near-standstill
This page has not been updated since that day:
Sometimes they say that the harder you push against something, the more powerful it will become (counter-intuitively or contrary to expectations, common sense and so on). One might dub that the "martyr effect", albeit with no physical connotation (Jose Rizal the writer, not Andres Bonifacio, became a national hero). Ever since we've come under censorship attempts (of unprecedented scale) our traffic generally grew, our IRC community expanded, and we've been able to produce more tools that make publication faster, that make the site faster, and make the server more robust/resistant to DDOS attacks. Resistance to something can inadvertently legitimise it further. It's like "reverse psychology". If you tell people "do not check this Web site", then they might be tempted to check it even though they had no intentions to do so before. Many Debian Developers read what Daniel Pocock says and some "Statement" from Debian "dares" them to do so. So be careful what you wish for when you resort to "ad hominemisms". Some Debian Developers are very angry at the way Debian 'elites' have handled this entire situation, which could instead be settled amicably half a decade ago.
It is rather delightful to learn of the possibility of Assange coming back to Wikileaks (it seems inevitable), maybe even as editor in chief - a so-called "title" that he lost after he had been kidnapped. Speaking of kidnapped, his first kid (Daniel) was encouraged by his father Julian when he was still about 16 to join and help out with Wikileaks. Daniel turned down this offer, as he believed Wikileaks wouldn't take off (years later he was proven wrong). Wikileaks started as an actual wiki (sometimes wikis become something else - ours is no exception) and at one point a lot of it was Drupal (some probably still is).
The 'corpus' of Wikileaks is still there for the most part, the "brand recognition" of Wikileaks is still strong, and we eagerly away a sort of "second life" for Wikileaks.
Wikileaks is one of many sites that publish leaks, but in some ways it was a trailblazer which inspired others all around the world. If Wikileaks becomes a "thing" again, it'll send a positive signal to free press advocates.
Remember that stuff which changes the world typically faces resistance from those who benefit the most from the status quo. That's why Wikileaks received and still receives so much resistance/hostility.
At the moment Wikileaks is mostly "captive" or prisoner of Elon Musk (with his Saudi sponsors). That needs to change. Years ago when I could still speak to Assange and others in Wikileaks I encouraged them to lessen the outsourcing to Twitter (now X). A lot has changed since then and many pro-Wikileaks accounts got either suspended or terminated. There's a lot of censorship going on, even throttling, deranking, and shadow-banning. This is well documented, even for the likes of "AssangeFreedom", Christine Assange (Julian's mom lost many accounts, she has not been visible for years, just like Pam Anderson).
Wikileaks should prioritise the site, not social control media "games". We should be able to visit Wikileaks.org and get new material there, rather than subscribe to some "X" things, controlled by a rich narcissist from South Africa, sponsored by people who literally cook journalists. █