Today, only a lazy or indifferent person has not heard of the Wikileaks website. For more than 10 years this portal has been flooding the world with sensational investigations, classified materials that were taken or stolen in the special services of advanced countries. The founder of the site, Julian Assange, became a cult figure in journalism, in America he is called a spy and traitor, in other countries - a man fighting for freedom of speech.
History
Wikileaks is not just a site with journalistic investigations, it is an information base on an international scale. The idea of creating such an open media fund for everyone was the approval of a different point of view, different from the official ideology. A similar idea quickly gained enormous popularity around the world. Today, all the revelations and scandals of an international scale are somehow connected with the Wikileaks website.
Many ordinary users are interested in how to translate Wikileaks into Russian. There is no exact translation, but the general sense is a “leak”. The founder of the site, Julian Assange, along with several trusted representatives publish information from anonymous sources on his portal. Any person who has some kind of interesting data for the public can upload files without advertising his real name. On average, the team of Assange and his associates has 5-6 proxies and about 1.5 thousand volunteers, the same dissidents and fighters for justice. Only administrators can post documents on the site. Unlike other sites with the wiki prefix, regular users cannot participate in data editing.
Foundation Objectives
All over the world they treat the site differently. Someone claims that Wikileaks is a spy project whose goal is to disorganize thinking in society. For his bold thoughts, Assange has been repeatedly imprisoned, arrested and charged - both in America and in Europe.
Each new publication on the site is like an explosion of an information bomb. It’s enough to recall the classified documents of the Pentagon confirming its connection with terrorist Islamist groups, or the scandalous video of 2010 about how American helicopters shot civilians. At that time, this video made a lot of noise, although the authorities continued to repeat the legitimacy of their actions.
The goals of the founder and his associates are to open the eyes of ordinary citizens to the situation in the world. To make people think critically, to see truthful, not imposed by the government news.
According to the founders, they saw as their task the placement along with official news of a different point of view on things and events. In addition, anonymity allowed many people who, under ordinary conditions, could not speak, express their opinions.
Assange Biography
Julian Assange is from Australia. Here he was known as an Internet presenter, hacker and journalist. Even in his youth, he had problems with the law, at the age of 20, along with other hackers, he hacked into the telecommunications program website, was tried, but escaped with a fine. He was also suspected of stealing money from the accounts of a large bank. In 2006, Assange, along with other like-minded people, was thinking about creating a unique project where declassified data could be published so that it was impossible to track the sources. This was Wikileaks.
According to some reports, Assange has 4 children, but in some interviews he himself speaks of only one son from an official wife. After a divorce from his mother, Julian himself raised a boy and did not communicate with him for several years because of his forced imprisonment at the Embassy of Ecuador in Sweden.
The pursuit
From the very beginning, realizing how difficult the task was, the founders of the portal decided to register in Sweden, known for its loyal attitude to journalists and their investigations.
Later, the presence in this country of the founder of the Wikileaks, Julian Assange, played a bad joke with him. In 2010, he was accused of raping a certain Swede, whose name was not disclosed. For the whole public, the question of the legality of such an accusation was clear: the authorities did not find any other reason to cling to the Internet rebel, and therefore such an unconventional solution was invented. According to another version, the conflict occurred due to the jealousy of two Assange women who could not divide the man.
Be that as it may, the British court took up the matter seriously, and soon Assange was about to be arrested. Then Julian sought refuge in Ecuador and hid in the territory of their embassy. For more than 5 years he has not been able to leave his walls, since any appearance on the territory of Sweden threatens with instant arrest.
Since 2012, Assange has been living and working in a small room with a bike path, shower and computer. Sometimes he goes to the balcony to give an interview, also actively communicates with those whom he supports. The decision to arrest him for sexual harassment was canceled in the summer of 2017, but Assange still can not leave the building. A few years ago, he violated the rules of being under house arrest, which is severely punished in the UK, where the trial was to take place.
Edward Snowden
The fate of this man also became forever connected with Wikileaks. Snowden was accused in absentia of high treason and theft of 1.7 million Pentagon classified files, including military security. In 2013, he managed to escape to Hong Kong, then to Moscow. Here, a fugitive hacker received a residence permit and political asylum. According to some reports, he lives in the suburbs, but where exactly, was not disclosed.
It was Snowden who discovered to the whole world the fact that every resident can be subject to round-the-clock tracking. Intelligence agencies of all developed countries monitor human behavior on the Internet, at work, and even at home.
Snowden deliberately took risks, realizing that a comfortable life, a home, a good salary and even freedom - everything could disappear. According to him, he simply could not live with the thought of impunity of the US government.
Website
What is this site - Wikileaks? When people talk about him, they first remember his founders and another associate of Assange, Edward Snowden. This man has also been hiding from the American authorities in Russia for several years. Although the accusations against him are much more serious - espionage and the disclosure of state secrets.
Wikileaks on the Internet has become a kind of discoverer. Nobody has spoken so boldly and openly about important events in the world. The very first publications about executions in Somalia, as well as the disclosure of classified materials about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, quickly recommended the portal and its founders among the same fighters with an imposed ideology.
In order to somehow protect himself, Assange made alliances with other hackers and Internet pirates. In addition, together with Snowden, they posted more than 4,000 GB of classified information files, which, if they die, will be in the public domain. Perhaps that is why they are still alive, but persecuted by all the strong intelligence agencies.
Publications
Each posting of secret documents on Wikileaks becomes a sensation. In 2009, hundreds of senior officials posted on the site about the events of September 11, suggesting that the government was involved in the worst terrorist attack in the United States.
In 2010, the site posted the correspondence of US diplomats with other countries. Readers of Wikileaks were able to easily find out about the request by Saudi Arabia for help in the capture of Iran, about nicknames and a real attitude to the leading world leaders.
The news that the NSA has been wiretapping the top leaders of Europe, including Angela Merkel, has caused great resonance in the world.
One of the latest publications is about hacking electronic devices of ordinary users.
Loud scandals
Many people believe that Wikileaks is a site created to discredit and stop the power of the United States and its military machine. Most of the publications concern America, the wars it unleashes and the consequences of hostilities. One of the most notorious revelations that hit the image of the United States was the publication of inhuman torture in Guantanamo Prison. Photos and videos of the atrocities perpetrated by the soldiers nearly cost Barack Obama the presidency and painfully hit the image of the country.
Another global information bomb was Snowden's global surveillance of all people. Now the topic of control of state corporations has not subsided, but is growing more and more. There is an assumption that all data from phones, computers, correspondence in social networks is available to special services. That without sanctions and permissions the FBI, the FSB and other special services can monitor the life of any person.
Oil was added to the fire by hackers, well-known personalities and ordinary inhabitants, who are replicating with might and main the idea that surveillance can be carried out even from an idle phone or laptop through a switched off camera.
Wikileaks in Russian
At the very beginning of his work, Assange was very skeptical of Russia and stated in his publications that his goal was to discover the facts of the repressions of recent years in this country and China, as well as to bring rich and criminal businessmen to the clear.
But over time, the attitude of the founders of Wikileaks to Russia and its role in world politics have largely changed. The media notice that the opinions of Assange and official Moscow often coincide, which is why the founder of the site has been repeatedly accused of having ties to Russia and Putin personally. Moreover, for several years Edward Snowden has been living and working in the suburbs.
So, Assange, in an interview with the Russian-language channel RT, supported Putin’s actions in Ukraine, and later in Syria.
Wikilix in Russian has not received wide development and is under development. For Russian-speaking users, the Russian Reporter magazine translates and publishes information on its portal. Some translations are available thanks to volunteers or just an interested user.
Fighting the site
Attempts to close the project have occurred repeatedly. After the first publications, the site was subjected to a tough Internet attack, and even for several days was inaccessible to visitors, and Wikilix materials were not affected. After Assange’s arrest and publications on the US Government’s diplomatic games, the Wikileaks account was frozen in some countries and donations were closed. But administrators got out of the situation and began to accept cash "gifts" in bitcoins, electronic currency.
Opinion in the world
Not everyone correctly understands and perceives the purpose of the Wikileaks site. Some call its founders heroes, fighters for justice, others consider such interference to be treason and a desire to become famous. Advocates of the Fifth Column idea say Wikileaks is a gigantic American information cannon, part of Washington’s well-thought-out company. And all the information dumped is just a fraction of the real database.
Wikileaks is always cited as an example of a free journalistic investigation, without the pressure of official authorities, special services or official ideology. Despite the huge resonance in society, the site, in general, achieved its original goal. Millions of people were able to see reality differently, not as the central media say.
Other portals similar to Wikileaks do not yet exist. There are individuals, hackers, volunteers, social activists who are trying to oppose the system, but there are no more such “powerful weapons” as the brainchild of Julian Assange.