I don't know whether Julian Assange is a victim or a cad. But from what I have read I doubt he is a rapist, he is definitely not a terrorist, and this is nothing but a legal farce.
The judge said these were "serious allegations against someone who has comparatively weak community ties in this country and the means and ability to abscond". But he rejected the prosecution claim that bail should be rejected on the grounds of Assange's safety.
As if the Forces of Darkness are concerned about his safety. As if they aren't watching him even when he sleeps. Tell me another one Big Brother, because I don't believe you.
I'm also not quite sure what to think about the revenge of the hacktivists.
Activists urged supporters to "get your weapons ready" by downloading software from a link posted on Twitter.
Supporters were then told to "FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!" at the agreed time.
Several minutes later Visa.com went down.
Because I find Russian spammers scary enough eh?
But if those big companies are waging economic warfare against a tiny whistleblowing site, just because it's embarrassing the rich and the powerful. And the Forces of Darkness want it shutdown.
Then maybe they should be inconvenienced a bit so they too get the message: The stakes are bigger than Wikileaks.
And they could affect us ALL.
Here's a message from Operation Payback...
"In these modern times access to the internet is fast becoming a basic human right. Just like any other basic human right, we believe that it is wrong to infringe upon it. To threaten to cut people off from the global consciousness as you have is criminal and abhorrent. To move to censor content on the internet based on your own prejudice is at best laughably impossible, at worst, morally reprehensible."
Whether you agree with them or you don't, two things cannot be denied. This is now the First Internet World War. And if we don't defend the freedom of the net, we could end up losing it.
The intolerance of the old order is emerging from the rosy mist in which it has hitherto been obscured. The response has been vicious, co-ordinated and potentially comprehensive, and it contains hard lessons for everyone who cares about democracy and about the future of the net.
What WikiLeaks is really exposing is the extent to which the western democratic system has been hollowed out. In the last decade its political elites have been shown to be incompetent (Ireland, the US and UK in not regulating banks); corrupt (all governments in relation to the arms trade); or recklessly militaristic (the US and UK in Iraq). And yet nowhere have they been called to account in any effective way. Instead they have obfuscated, lied or blustered their way through. And when, finally, the veil of secrecy is lifted, their reflex reaction is to kill the messenger.
Our rulers have a choice to make: either they learn to live in a WikiLeakable world, with all that implies in terms of their future behaviour; or they shut down the internet. Over to them.
And over to us. The First Internet World War has begun and everyone must choose sides, whether they like it or not.
I want to live in a world of truth not lies, because that's the only way we can save this planet from destruction.
Save the messenger. Fight the Forces of Darkness. Let the truth set us free.
Or ELSE...
If this really is the First Internet World War then I expect that the Forces of Darkness will hit people where they're most vulnerable: their ISPs. For most people this is their only link to the Internet and it's also one that in most cases is either controlled by the Forces of Darkness or by people who will cooperate with them. In many cities there are only one or two owned by big companies. I know this is just as true in Canada as it is in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteYou can bet that tech-savvy people such as myself will be looking for ways around this, using tactics both old and new.
hi Dave...yes I think you're right. The big ISPs in this country are all owned by big Con conglomerates who I am quite sure willing willingly collaborate with the Forces of Darkness. What this Wikileaks eruption has clearly shown is that the internet can be shrunk or collapsed by commercial interests.
ReplyDeleteI think tech-savvy people need to be looking for ways to avoid this in the future, because if we don't have a plan B or C etc we could find ourselves one day in a totalitarian darkness. I see the internet, despite all its warts, as a way to build solidarity and save the planet. So I'm really worried about what's going on...
People have already been working on a Plan B: it's called by some the darknet and it's pretty much the underground of the Internet.
ReplyDeleteAs for Plan C, it wouldn't involve the Internet at all, but rather a "sneakernet 2.0." This blog post sums it up nicely. Cosky talks about using it in case the Internet is unavailable, but it could just as easily be used to bypass the Internet entirely should it become totally corporate-controlled.
I'm actually more interested in Plan C than Plan B due to its versatility.