Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales is planning a news service that combines the work of professional journalists and volunteers.
His goal is for Wikitribune to offer “factual and neutral” articles that help combat the problem of “fake news”.
The service is intended to be both ad-free and free-to-read, so will rely on supporters making regular donations.
BBC: Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales creates news service Wikitribune »
But if the US Department of Justice prosecutes Assange, as it reportedly may soon, he could become something else: the first journalist in modern history to be criminally charged by American courts for publishing classified information. WikiLeaks may not look like a traditional journalism outlet, but it shares the same ends—publishing true information from its sources. And that means legal action against Assange could threaten the freedom of the press as a whole.
Wired: The US Charging Julian Assange Could Put Press Freedom on Trial »
The U.S. administration is raising its voice when it comes to Wikileaks and its editor in charge, Julian Assange.
According to CNN Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a news conference Thursday that Assange’s arrest is a “priority.” (Link»)
We’ve already begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail. (…)
“Julian Assange has no First Amendment freedoms. He’s sitting in an Embassy in London. He’s not a US citizen,” Pompeo said.
But there is opposition…
Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, argued that US prosecution of Assange sets a dangerous precedent.
“Never in the history of this country has a publisher been prosecuted for presenting truthful information to the public,” Wizner told CNN. “Any prosecution of WikiLeaks for publishing government secrets would set a dangerous precedent that the Trump administration would surely use to target other news organizations.”
So, what is it that Wikileaks have done to stir the wrath of Washington?
Wikileaks has published »war diaries« from U.S. wars in Irak and Afghanistan: Exposing what has been done in the name of the American people, paid for by American taxpayers – to the American public.
This is how it should be in a democratic society. Without transparency, it will become impossible to hold those in power accountable. And it will make democratic elections pointless, as voters cannot make informed choices without the relevant information.
Wikileaks also has published U.S. Embassy cables, exposing the U.S. administration having double standards and lying to other countries (many of them allies) as well as to the American public.
Once again, exposing this is a democratic undertaking. In a democratic society, it is a significant problem if the government holds one set of policies in public and a different one behind the scenes. Power should be carried out in public, not in secret.
Wikileaks and Julian Assange have provided a remarkable service to society, to the American people, and to the world.
Going after Assange is going to war against transparency, the truth, the people – and democracy itself.
Professor Schulz criticises the fact that the draft law covers a range of different types of offences, making it difficult to assess its necessity as a means of restricting freedom of speech. More damningly, he points to the key assumptions on which the law is based, arguing that they have been abandoned “for a long time”. Furthermore, he argues that “there are many effective ways of addressing fake news or hateful speech” that should be [implicitly, were not] taken into account to minimise potential negative effects on freedom of speech”.
EDRi: German Social Media law – sharp criticism from leading legal expert »
GNI: Proposed German Legislation Threatens Free Expression Around the World »
US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, US officials familiar with the matter tell CNN.
The Justice Department investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks dates to at least 2010, when the site first gained wide attention for posting thousands of files stolen by the former US Army intelligence analyst now known as Chelsea Manning.
Prosecutors have struggled with whether the First Amendment precluded the prosecution of Assange, but now believe they have found a way to move forward.
CNN » Sources: US prepares charges to seek arrest of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange »
Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde has a new privacy-oriented startup. Today he launches the domain registration service Njalla, which offers site owners full anonymity, shielding them from the prying eyes of outsiders. “Think of us as your friendly drunk (but responsibly so) straw person that takes the blame for your expressions.”
Torrentfreak: Pirate Bay Founder Launches Anonymous Domain Registration Service »
The current proposal, which proposes even more obligations on video-sharing platforms, is horribly contradictory and unclear. It does contain, however, a reasonable amount of comedy, which is an innovation for the EU institutions. For example, this legislation on “audiovisual” content covers, on the basis of Parliament compromise amendments, “a set of moving images”, which would cover, for example, an animated GIF. (…)
On a more serious note, the proposal requires badly defined video-sharing platforms to take measures to protect children from content that would harm their “physical, mental or moral development” (“moral” added by the Parliament to various new parts of the Directive). This involves measures to restrict (undefined) legal content.
EDRi on the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD): AVMS Directive – censorship by coercive comedy confusion »
In a speech Thursday at a Washington DC think tank, CIA Director Michael Pompeo called the whistleblower site WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” and said news organizations that reveal the government’s crimes are “enemies” of the United States. (…)
Referring to WikiLeaks’ founder, Pompeo declared that “Julian Assange has no First Amendment freedoms.” (…)
In his remarks, Pompeo said, “We have to recognize that we can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us. To give them the space to crush us with misappropriated secrets is a perversion of what our great Constitution stands for. It ends now.”
WSWS: CIA Director calls WikiLeaks an “enemy,” says Assange has “no First Amendment freedoms” »
Update, also read:
Techcrunch: Hypocritical CIA Director Goes On Rant About Wikileaks, Free Speech »
The Intercept: Trump’s CIA Director Pompeo, Targeting WikiLeaks, Explicitly Threatens Speech and Press Freedoms »
Facebook says it has targeted 30,000 fake accounts linked to France ahead of the country’s presidential election, as part of a worldwide effort against misinformation.
The company said Thursday it’s trying to “reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts.”
It said its efforts “enabled us to take action” against the French accounts and that it is removing sites with the highest traffic.
ABC News: Facebook targets 30,000 fake France accounts before election »
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies today, CIA Director Mike Pompeo went off on WikiLeaks. Pompeo is pretty mad about that whole Vault 7 hacking tools data dump, it looks like. “WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service,” he declared Thursday. I think he means that it’s a hostile intelligence service!
Techcrunch: The CIA is really, really mad at WikiLeaks »
