07 Dec Facebook Won’t Shut Down WikiLeaks Page
As numerous other websites happily conspire with the US government to shut down WikiLeaks, despite the fact that neither Assange nor anyone else associated with the website has ever been charged, much less convicted, of a disclosure-related crime, it is good to see that the world’s foremost social networking site is willing to stick to its principles:
Classified document publishing website Wikileaks has now been kicked off of Amazon, Paypal, its DNS server and its Swiss bank account – but it lives on, including across hundreds of mirrored sites and is the subject for widespread discussion on Facebook and Twitter.
Site leader Julian Assange is hiding on the run but said to be facing imminent arrest in multiple countries. US Republican party figureheads have reportedly called for him to be hunted down like a Taliban leader and executed. He may very well be named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year for pushing the envelope on questions of technology disruption of media and diplomatic secrecy. Senator Joe Lieberman called on US corporations to stop doing business with Wikileaks but tonight Facebook has issued a statement about its stance: for now at least, Wikileaks can continue publishing updates to supporters on the world’s largest social network.
ReadWriteWeb’s question, by email: “Does Facebook have a statement on the Wikileaks account there? Will it be allowed to continue publishing, despite government calls to stop doing business with the organization? Is Facebook considering shutting down the account?”
Facebook’s response, from Andrew Noyes, the company’s D.C. based Manager of Public Policy Communications: “The Wikileaks Facebook Page does not violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material posted on the page that violates our policies.”
I haven’t seen The Social Network yet, but I’m going into it with considerable affection for Mark Zuckerberg.
The autoritarian mindset in this story is alarming. Without any due process, let alone a conviction, it is possible to become a terrorist and get your bankaccount blocked (details Glenn: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html ). Nobody finds it odd that politicians are asking for the execution of Assange and designating WL as Terrorist organisation without any involvement of the courts. No violent act, no inducement to commit terrorist acts, still US senators want him killed. Even reading WL info might be seen as a terrorist act. Brave New World anybody?
Given the lack of incentive for the investigation of those involved in the Torture Regime one has to ask: what happened? This episode proves the US is capable of action when it concerns threats to the “Old Boys Network.” We at least now have evidence of where Obama places his priorities.
Just in case I was unclear, the bigger picture that is being obscured: http://sowhyiswikileaksagoodthingagain.com/