Heroes of the Freedom of Information

The Internet world was shocked last month by the suicide of Aaron Swartz, an extremely famous computer programmer and activist for “freedom of information” who fought to make Internet content free. At 26 years old, he was an innovator and pioneer in content management. He created a project known as Open Library, which allowed books without editors to have their own website. Additionally, he founded Demand Progress, an organization that fought against any form of censorship on the Internet.

With that philosophy, and thanks to his computer genius that he got from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, four million scientific articles that he tried to put on a platform for free access are available so that the whole world may take advantage of these research advances. His audacity landed him in jail after he was accused of computing fraud for the illegal attainment of documents. Another FBI investigation arose in 2008, when Swartz downloaded 18 million pages from judicial reports and related data linked to American courts – a crime for which he had to pay. Swartz believed that having access to the documents was a citizen’s right and therefore the service should be free. His judicial horizon was not easy; he didn’t resist the pressure from the trial where, having been found guilty, he would have faced 30 years in prison and a fine of a million dollars. This was clearly an unsuitable punishment, and instead represented the desire of the judicial powers to establish a precedent, which Aaron Swartz preferred to face by handing over his life and dying for his convictions.

Swartz’s actions pushed the limits in a way similar to another defender of freedom of information on the Internet, the creator of WikiLeaks, Australian Julian Assange. Assange survives withdrawn in a room of the embassy of Ecuador in London, trapped in a diplomatic paradox that prohibits him from leaving the embassy despite having obtained Ecuadorian political asylum.

Even more saddening is the destiny of the young soldier Bradley Manning, who was responsible for leaking documents that strengthened WikiLeaks and revealed uncomfortable clues about the power of the Department of State. At only 24 years old, Manning is enduring the rigors of isolation in a military prison. The military court is accusing him of 22 charges of “aiding the enemy” and plans to sentence him to life in prison. Unsurprisingly, Manning has attempted suicide on more than one occasion.

The strength of the Internet, which allows information to be navigated in an uncontrollable manner, is an immutable fact of reality. Its effects are equally unpredictable. Just as Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia and the product of collective construction, WikiLeaks is a huge mailbox to which documents arrive anonymously. Aaron Swartz was not alone in his goal to make sure that access to such material would continue to be free on the Internet with no censorship or material obstacles. Without a doubt, three heroes of the freedom of information have shown the way.