Thinking of the Next Phase of Wikileaks (and Beyond Wikileaks)
A few hours ago (by co-founder of The Intercept): I'm leaving The Intercept and starting Drop Site News (direct link)
TWO weeks ago Julian Assange boarded a flight to freedom. Many were relieved. It was a glimmer of hope in a sea of filth and darkness. The trial (or hearing) scheduled to begin later today is no more. Mr. Assange is already home with his kids. A foregone conclusion?
It has since then become possible to listen to the hearing in Saipan (it got recorded) and judging by the calm - e.g. no video uploads in over a week after publishing several per day - one can assume the Assanges spend time with their kids. No "social control media" for now... (Wikileaks actually borrowed this phrased that I had coined)
We've meanwhile seen more articles suggesting or insinuating that Julian will make a comeback of some kind - articles that get a boost from Stella and from Wikileaks. There's also this new piece from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Wikileaks must become about Wikileaks again, i.e. new leaks, not about the Assange case. This page is nearly 10 years out of date and Wikileaks has outsourced itself to social control media, where it is reposting oldies rather than new material. We hope this will change soon. The Wikileaks site has not been updated at all [1, 2] since Assange's release, not even to make a statement about this release.
Thankfully, some new initiatives are launched and already "endorsed" by Wikileaks - as recently as one hour ago (connected to drone strikes' whistleblower Daniel Hale). Mr. Omidyar could only temporarily starve a world hungry for information while burning stories' sources*, paying people to slander Julian Assange, and - perhaps worst of all - dismantling journalists with access to Snowden leaks. β
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* We've often joked that it is called The Intercept because it routinely intercepts sources and reduces whistleblowers' confidence in the press.