Assange and his whistle-blowing website has really taken the world by storm. We all know Wikileaks and its tremendous impact on the world. The political systems have been shaken up and lots of myths upended, many lies (potentially) revealed and the truth believed to be immutable, mutated! I have very strong and specific viewpoints about the whole issue, but this post is not about them. This post is about the sanctions that companies like Amazon and Paypal have put on wikileaks. They have subjected wikileaks to a form of online ostracization, which has hurt the sensibilities of most sensible people, yours truly included! The result was that those sites were targeted by hackers who launched denial of service attacks against the said sites.
Now, while launchins DDoS attacks against Amazon and Paypal in retaliation of their sanctions on wikileaks is definitely not the best course of action, in my eyes, what the big fishes did was not a great thing in the first place. The role of these sites n acting as “moral police” is definitely not something that appeals to my taste. If people with criminal records can apply for and be granted financial perks like credit cards and amazon tradings, then what about wikileaks irks them? Whistleblowers are a very susceptible race. And these limitations imposed on Wikileaks by the other big sites is also another proof of the fact that it does not pay to invest in honesty.
In a similar parallel in the medical world, one may say that whistle blowers who call the bluffs of their colleagues remain a very rare species. Mainly because of the fact that no one likes a tattle tale and there are little, if any, policies in place which can protect the whistle blowers, most doctors tend to overlook their malpracticing, lying and poorly abled colleagues. No one likes to be the one to tell. And that, eventually, affects the patients.
This does not mean I fully endorse the ways and means in which the Wikileaks people obtained their documents, or their actions which compromised the security of nations, but just that often, the ends justify the means. Today, the internet is no longer an implement of enjoyment, a leisure business. It is the life-blood for economies, the information boulevard. In sucha world, wikileaks calling the people in the ivory towers to be more accountable is not a crime. What is a crime, at least in my eyes, is other companies, acting holier-than-thou and enforcing moral codes and regulations.
Scepticemia 