What is WikiLeaks?

Key Takeaways

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 life is too short for internet fights let's get into it in a nutshell Wikileaks is a journalist organization 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 8s and early '90s while living in Melbourne Assange managed to hack the Pentagon US Department of Defense Navy NASA Motorola Panasonic loed Martin and Xerox in 1991 Assange was finally caught by the Australian federal police but was released 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 a Sange founded Wikileaks more on Julian and his current situation later but back to WikiLeaks Wikileaks has run by volunteers from a number of countries and is a nonprofit organization in the past 10 years they've released more secret documents than all of the world's media combined a total 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 end quote Wikileaks actually doesn't do any of the hacking or uncovering of sensitive information themselves 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 anonimity 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 East such leagues could be punishable by death there have been several Supreme Court precedent cases where the American Constitution protect 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 it must be said that for Wikileaks to be protected under the US Constitution it has to be treated as a US company the organization says that they analyze 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 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 with within an organization whistleblowers are usually from within or have close ties with the accused company 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 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 the 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 got special ops forces I mean a dead man can't leak stuff this guy's a traitor a treasonist and and 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 Pen only want to do it illegally shoot the son of a it's time that the Obama Administration treats wikilinks 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 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 they also tried to pin him with charges on stolen property but the documents are intellectual and not physical so it didn't really go anywhere Julian Assan 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 the sign had arbitrarily been detained and that his detention should be brought to an end the expert panel call 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 17th 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 4 years now you can understand that the internet for him it's not just very important for his work as editor of WikiLeaks it's also a v 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 Sange and his Organization for being that middleman that has provided deep Revelations of government to the press and to the public over the past decade with a s in limbo and the threat of more revealing leaks on the way who knows what's going to happen next 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 deogo you've been watching cold fusion and I'll see you again soon for the next video cheers guys have a good one cold fusion it's new [Music] thinking your love [Music] capacity