Radical Transparency after WikiLeaks

The next speaker in this AoIR 2018 session is Luke Heemsbergen, whose interest is in the evolution of radical leaking online, after the initial WikiLeaks moment. Originally, circa 2007, the platform suggested the possibility of a new form of radical transparency, yet for WikiLeaks itself that moment subsequently passed because of the way it has evolved further; other, more recent platforms have stepped into that breach to offer alternative models, however.

For transparency to be radical it must be able to subvert or disrupt dominant attitudes, and Luke defines radical transparency as disclosure that uproots expectations across communicative, organisational, and political dimensions; to develop a taxonomy of online leaking his project investigated the operations of a range of current leaking sites and platforms. How do they work? What do they seek to achieve? Is there a viable ecosystem of such sites?

Many of these sites do not provide significant technical protection for would-be leakers providing content; indeed, some of the sites simply fed on WikiLeaks content and provided access to it in different formats, in response to the often suboptimal structure, searchability, and readability of the material provided by WikiLeaks itself. Others developed new platforms for leaking secrets, sometimes focussing on specific fields, topics, or nations of interest, or supported by or connected to mainstream journalism. Many of them failed to produce any new data. Few of these sites connected publicly with each other; most of them appeared to operate in isolation from one another.