By IANS,
Washington : Many considered the 2010 WikiLeaks disclosures as ripping the culture of secrecy that cloaked governmental functioning and heralding a new world of ‘radical transparency’. But a law and public policy academic argues that claims that old-style secrecy is over are an illusion, and that Wikileaks’ advocates have overstated their scale and significance.
“They also overlook many ways in which the simple logic of radical transparency – leak, publish, and wait for the inevitable outrage – can be defeated in practice,” says Alasdair Roberts of Suffolk University Law School, Boston.
WikiLeaks’ aim is to challenge ‘increasing authoritarian tendencies’ in government and the growth of unaccountable corporate power, the journal International Review of Administrative Sciences reports.
By the end of 2010, WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief and founder, Julian Assange, were in the eye of a media storm, with few doubting the significance of the extensive leaked material, according to a Suffolk statement.
Roberts also suggests that the 2010 leaks actually revealed the obstacles to achievement of increased transparency, even in the digital age. The leaks’ sheer size in terms of volume of pages was cited as proof of their significance – these were the largest set of confidential documents ever leaked to the public.
Roberts observes that: “The incidents revealed by WikiLeaks might not even be construed as abuses of power at all. On the contrary, they might provide reassurance that the American government is willing to act ruthlessly in the pursuit of American interests, and that it actually has the capacity to act ruthlessly.”
Yet in quantitative terms, the data’s significance as a fraction of the total number of confidential documents is no greater than previous leaks during other eras. The sheer quantity of this type of data held by governments is constantly increasing.
On the Internet, commercial and political considerations compromise the free flow of information, just as they did when we relied on earlier communications technologies.
When WikiLeaks released US State Department cables in November 2010, several companies that Wikileaks used, including Amazon Web Services, EveryDNS.net, PayPal and Apple, cut off their services, citing contractual violations or threats to their own businesses that would hinder other customers.