This xkcd comic humorously highlights a seeming tension in WikiLeaks’ so-called “anti-secrecy agenda:” While secrecy facilitates the systemic abuses of institutional power that WikiLeaks opposes, it also protects extra-institutional actors working to disrupt conspiracies (i.e., uneven distributions of information) that benefit the few at the expense of the many. However, as I discuss a recent Cyborgology post and a chapter (co-authored with Nathan Jurgenson) for a forthcoming WikiLeaks reader, Julian Assange’s approach to secrecy is far more sophisticated than just unconditional opposition. For example, he explains in a 2010 TIME interview:
secrecy is important for many things but shouldn’t be used to cover up abuses, which leads us to the question of who decides and who is responsible. It shouldn’t really be that people are thinking about: Should something be secret? I would rather it be thought: Who has a responsibility to keep certain things secret? And, who has a responsibility to bring matters to the public? And those responsibilities fall on different players. And it is our responsibility to bring matters to the public.
Assange is saying that secrecy is not a problem in and of itself; in fact, society generally benefits when individuals and extra-institutional actors are able to maintain some level of secrecy. Secrecy only become a problem when it occurs in institutional contexts, because institutions have an intrinsic tendency to control information in order to benefit insiders. This conspiratorial nature of institutions is what WikiLeaks truly opposes, and enforced transparency (i.e., leaking) is merely a tactic in that struggle. For this reason, WikiLeaks and Anonymous (the extra-institutional Internet community and hacker collective) are allies, despite the superficial tension highlighted in this comic.
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Gabriella — December 26, 2011
They are allies but why is the tension superficial? To me the tensions among geeks and hackers is what what should be highlighted as differences are too often whitewashed away or swept under the rug. They are no doubt "allies" and yet you also could not have more different configurations as you pointed to earlier.
Also given the somewhat more unpredictable, larger nature of Anon, and their own leaking sprees, which have been more prolific and of quite a different nature as well, Randall might want to make a second version where Anon doxes Julian :-) Although Anon actually would not likley target WL or JA nor would WL target Anon, Anon is certainly the far more unwieldy/whimsical of the two :-)
PJ Patella-Rey — December 26, 2011
Biella,
I'm quite excited to have your input. When I said "superficial," I certainly didn't mean to imply unimportant. Rather, I was referring to the fact that there is a deeper commonality that is important to recognize, though not spelled out in the comic.
I do very much agree with you though. In the mainstream media for example, there is little effort to parse out the differences between the two groups. We really need to develop a better vocabulary to highlight the similarities and difference between these two actors as well as the institutions they are opposing. The ideologies that have emerged around visibility/transparency/conspiracy are rather sophisticated and could benefit from further taxonomy.
Gabriella — January 5, 2012
Hi PJ,
Sorry for the delay. Moving is . . . a biatch and time consuming. Indeed, the superficiality of it can be annoying. It will be interesting to see whether that texture can take hold in the media. I am just hoping it takes hold among academics who still fall back on rather one dimensional visions and pictures of hackers.!