Overshooting the Target

With the leaking of confidential diplomatic documents, the Internet platform WikiLeaks has found itself in superpower America’s crosshairs. In its rage over the leaking of the dispatches, the United States is meanwhile overshooting the target. They never fail to praise the freedom of the Internet when it serves their own purposes, such as the movement toward democracy in China or Tibet, or when Russian human rights activists or the opposition in Burma have anything to say. But now Washington is playing with fire.

Under pressure from the United States and using the flimsiest of excuses, WikiLeaks is being denied access to Internet servers and their Internet addresses are being deleted. What began life looking like a struggle for the necessity of secrecy in international politics is now beginning to look more like censorship.

One can only argue that such tactics have never worked with the Internet and that may well be true. The debate over WikiLeaks and what constitutes responsible behavior by its owners is now in full swing, and some heroic images have already been tarnished. These attacks by the United States come just at the right moment. WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange should be thankful for them.