WikiLeaks co-founder Assange questions social media influence in Middle East unrest
Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks has described the internet as the ‘greatest spying machine the world has ever seen’ and questioned the role that social media has had in the recent uprisings in the Middle East.
The Guardian reports that while addressing students at Cambridge University, Assange claimed that the internet ensured greater governmental transparency and called on people to co-operate in order to hold repressive authorities to account.
"It is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," he said.
He continued to describe the internet as "a technology that favours freedom of speech,” but added that it did not favour human rights.
“It is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen. Or, on the other hand, taken by us, taken by activists, and taken by all those who want a different trajectory for the technological world, it can be something we all hope for."
He went onto question whether social media was as responsible for recent demonstrations and overthrowing of governments in the Middle East as had previously been credited. "Yes it did play a part, although not nearly as large a part as al-Jazeera,” he explained, adding that information released by his own site was involved in the protests that would fee Hosni Mubarak, former president of Egypt, step down.
He later stated when questioned that he had no idea if Bradley Manning, a US soldier who was an apparent whistle blower for WikiLeaks and is being held in custody under suspicion of leaking classified information, was an informant or not.