Facebook and WikiLeaks

Since 1927, Time magazine has chosen an annual “Person of the Year.” Prior recipients from this pioneering list include Adolf Hitler in 1938, Pope John Paul II in 1994, the computer in 1982 and planet Earth in 1988. This was the year for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

At 26 years old, Zuckerberg is the second-youngest personality to receive this distinction, after aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom the franchise was inaugurated 82 years ago. The editors of Time based this year’s choice on the undeniable impact of social networks, of which Facebook is the most widespread. “[F]or creating a new system of exchanging information that has become both indispensable and sometimes a little scary,” wrote the magazine.

Launched in February 2004 as an exclusive network for students from Ivy League universities, Facebook surpassed 500 million users this year. The website not only maps the relationships and social connections of nearly a tenth of humanity, it is already transforming them.

The meteoric rise of social networks in the past decade has radically changed the concepts of privacy, of the creation of content and applications, and of “friendship.” It is estimated that every day 500 billion* little pieces of information are posted on the pages of Facebook.

The interoperability between platforms — for example, between a social network and a cell phone with an Internet connection — guarantees users’ continued access to their profiles and therefore to their contacts. As the architect of the most popular social network, Zuckerberg is at the heart of these transformations and represents a new type of digital pioneer for the generations born in the Internet era. While Bill Gates had to design an operating system like Windows, Zuckerberg transferred his college’s student directory to the network.

Along with the creator of Facebook, another Internet personality competed for the recognition of Time: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. The digital whistleblower, who actually won Time’s online popular vote, represents the other side of the challenges to privacy being unleashed by the information superhighway.

WikiLeaks is responsible for Cablegate, the leaking of over 250,000 classified U.S. State Department documents. Although this massive uncovering of the intrigues of diplomacy in Washington — the largest in modern history — has already achieved a tangible impact on Obama’s foreign policy, it is still too early to see its effects in the medium term.

However, one of the most obvious effects is the revitalization of the written press as a vehicle for legitimizing information.

Assange chose five mainstream newspapers and left the decision of what to publish in the hands of the editors. In other words, more-established journalism applied the basic rules of the journalistic trade on the hackers. This “seal of quality” of the editors strengthens the credibility of the leaks.

Facebook and WikiLeaks have been key players in 2010 for reasons that go beyond the technological realm. While Zuckerberg’s social network is changing the way in which hundreds of millions of people relate to each other, and is redefining the notion of “personal,” Assange’s leaks site, established this year, is the forerunner of an innovative channel of transparency in global politics: the digital whistleblowers.

*Editor’s Note: According to the Time magazine article, “In a single day, about a billion new pieces of content are posted on Facebook.”