WIKILEAKS - FACEBOOK

WikiLeaks - Facebook

WikiLeaks - Facebook

Introduction

WikiLeaks is a media organisation and classified as a not-for-profit business entity. It began its work in 2007 and received huge public attention in 2010. It was a year when it leaked diplomatic cables. Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks. It works on the idea that people have a right to express and give opinions about world issues. They can hold any opinion, and no one has the right to take away this freedom. It has combined journalism with secure information and communication technologies. It provides an anonymous electronic drop box to users for submitting material. This electronic medium is secure and encrypted. When WikiLeaks receives information, journalists there analyse and verify the material. They write a news piece about it on WikiLeaks website. The news piece contains both the story and the original material. News stories are in same format as of Wikipedia, although WikiLeaks claim that Wikipedia and WikiLeaks are not related, but two entirely separate organizations. Unlike Wikipedia, users cannot edit news stories in WikiLeaks (WikiLeaks, 2013, p. n.d).

Facebook is an online social networking website. It started in 2004. Facebook aims to make the world a connected place and encourage sharing of information and images. It is headquartered in California. As of June 30, 2013, it had 5,299 employees and 1.15 billion monthly active users. Mark Zuckerberg is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Facebook. Its features include News Feed, Timeline, Graph Search, Messages, Photos and Video, Groups, Events, and Pages (Facebook NewsRoom, 2013, p. n.d). More than 350 million photos per day are uploaded to Facebook. There are more than 50 million Pages with ten or more Likes. Facebook completed its initial public offering in May 2012. It is listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “FB” (Facebook Investor Relations, 2013, pp. 5-6).

Discussion

WikiLeaks - Ethics and Issues

Wikileaks works on the principle that the more information you have, the better will be the decision-making process. No one wants to have their private, sensitive information leaked. WikiLeaks does not believe in rules and regulations and discloses and leaks sensitive information. Its leaks are corporate leaks as well as government leaks. They claim that corporate leaks highlight dishonesty in business and benefits honest CEOs. It helps in providing a conducive environment to open and honest companies by revealing the secrets of closed and dishonest companies. Julian Assange has mixed attitudes towards capitalism, but he believes in a free market concept. He believes that information should be made available to everyone and let the best player gain the share in the market. In a free market, people should know whom they are dealing with (Greenberg, 2010, p. n.d).

Julian Assange was a traditional computer hacker. He co-wrote a book about being a hacker. His earlier days spent in Melbourne. As a teenager, he was convicted of hacking corporate and official websites (Mcgreal, 2010, p. n.d). In 1993, he started Suburbia. It was one of the first ISPs in ...