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We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

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Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#31
post #6

Wikileaks is apparently on a mission to destroy whatever credibility they had left. They seem to be taking a leaf out of the IS playbook here, any random attack that is moderately successful gets claimed as one of theirs. It isn't a week since they were extremely economical with the truth regarding Assange's internet access ('state actor cut off their internet' -> 'Ecuador has pulled the plug on Assange's laptop'). T…

Wikileaks does not operate much differently from any other media organization: they take anonymous tips, they publish them, they work with others to sensationalize their findings, they have internal biases, and they likely are beholden to whoever is financing or supporting them. If Wikileaks went away, it would be bad, but not much different than if any other news gathering and distributing service went away.

Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#32

I do find that there is something surreal about Twitter and the U.S. election, it has become a primary communication channel. We used to have 'I have a dream' speeches, nowadays it is lol txt tweets. Donald Trump's contribution to this tweet-thread is an example: "Wow! @wikileaks admits its supporters are engaged in anti-American cyber-terrorism. No wonder Wikileakes loves me so much! #ImWithPutin" Is that really fro…

Don't be too nostalgic. How much of the "I have a dream" speech can you directly recall beyond the first 140 characters? How much of our politics has been sound bites, misinformation, and trumped up ideology for the past few decades. There are villains in this age, but communication in 140 characters is not it.

Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are missing the possibility of selective withholding of information and possible changes of the information leaked to suit a political end. Focusing on personalities is a mistake when it comes to mere technical ability, but when it becomes a political question I think it is a valid concern. At a minimum I'd like to see another outlet next to WL.

No, I'm not missing the selective withholding. And no one has shown any change to released information. Not once.

There's reason to believe, based on reports from people who leaked emails to wikileaks, that they selectively withhold information that shine light on russia: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wikileaks-syria-russia...

In fact, if you really want to read into it:

> US govt funded #PanamaPapers attack story on Putin via USAID. Some good journalists but no model for integrity.

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/717670056650530816 almost sounds like WL had knowledge but decided not to act because it was critical of Putin.

You can absolutely create a narrative by removing quotes out of context. In the same way, you can create a narrative by withholding information.

Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#35
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point?

He's so vain that he thinks these hacks are about him.

Assange's internet was shut off at the behest of John Kerry. He didn't write that tweet. We don't even know if he is really alive.

Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#36

Fyi at this point there is speculation that something has happened with WikiLeaks, including Assange, who has not been seen for a week now since the early morning events at the Embassy (when his Internet was cut). Their subreddit has had their share of panic threads. Take this with a grain a salt, and I won't link to 4chan where this was first pointed out, but the last two days of tweets have also included typos/ mis…

NSFW due to images in replies and language: http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/94081465/julian-assange-w... http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/94082701 http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/94075699

No way, that's absurd (the "help him" message, not that Assange might be in danger). First, those tweets were not posted one after another, or even in chronological order. Second, it's a mixture of missing letters and extra letters, and for example in "recipie" they select "e", when it's obviously "i" that is the extra letter. And then why take three letters from "algorithim"? And most importantly, many of these tweets were posted before Assange even lost his internet connection.

I will say that I am totally dismayed by the general response toward Wikileaks on HN. I wish Assange the best, and hope Wikileaks continues with its work in the American political sphere for a long time. I don't know so much about Wikileaks' activity relating to Turkey, for instance, and if that was handled improperly, but the Podesta and DNC leaks are proving extremely valuable to American democracy.

Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#37

I do find that there is something surreal about Twitter and the U.S. election, it has become a primary communication channel. We used to have 'I have a dream' speeches, nowadays it is lol txt tweets. Donald Trump's contribution to this tweet-thread is an example: "Wow! @wikileaks admits its supporters are engaged in anti-American cyber-terrorism. No wonder Wikileakes loves me so much! #ImWithPutin" Is that really fro…

Don't be too nostalgic. How much of the "I have a dream" speech can you directly recall beyond the first 140 characters? How much of our politics has been sound bites, misinformation, and trumped up ideology for the past few decades. There are villains in this age, but communication in 140 characters is not it.

Perhaps, then, twitter is not a malady but a symptom. The idea that we can whittle all of our ideas down to 140 characters has been building for decades, as you say, and only now manifests itself explicitly.

I don't think it's too nostalgic to pine for longer, epic exhortation of ideas. People still give memorable speeches (cf. Obama's "More Perfect Union"), and people still memorize the speeches of old. They give context to the soundbites and give depth when we want to go beyond the misquotes. But yes, blaming twitter goes too far, because it certainly has its place, too. It's just another tool of communication that has its benefits and pitfalls.

Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#38
post #30
post #6

Wikileaks is apparently on a mission to destroy whatever credibility they had left. They seem to be taking a leaf out of the IS playbook here, any random attack that is moderately successful gets claimed as one of theirs. It isn't a week since they were extremely economical with the truth regarding Assange's internet access ('state actor cut off their internet' -> 'Ecuador has pulled the plug on Assange's laptop'). T…

If what Assange and team are going through is any indication, the US Government has set a dangerous precedent in how it deals with people who go against the establishment, exposing it. They spin a narrative saying he broke certain laws, which is true, but doesn't explain how hard they are hitting Assange with behind the scenes activities to extradite him to the USA. The real motivation is to get back at Assange for p…

https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiLeaks/comments/587lbg/i_have_be...

It's looking like the latest allegations against him of pedophilia were totally false and fabricated by supporters of the Clinton campaign.

Edit: the above link doesn't spell it out but the the toddandclare.com website it is talking about is allegedly a totally fake dating site that submitted a false report to the Bahamanian police and issued a fake report that they tried to pass off as being written by the UN. That reddit post is describing how they think the fake dating site is linked to a private intelligence company.

http://www.snopes.com/2016/10/19/ecuador-cut-off-julian-assa...

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/17/1583749/-Julian-As...

Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#39

I do find that there is something surreal about Twitter and the U.S. election, it has become a primary communication channel. We used to have 'I have a dream' speeches, nowadays it is lol txt tweets. Donald Trump's contribution to this tweet-thread is an example: "Wow! @wikileaks admits its supporters are engaged in anti-American cyber-terrorism. No wonder Wikileakes loves me so much! #ImWithPutin" Is that really fro…

As fjarlq said, that supposed Trump quote is from a parody account, @realDenaldTrump. Note the 'e', Denald.

Re: We ask supporters to stop taking down the US internet. You proved your point

#40

Is there any real reason to believe the attacks were connected to wikileaks in any way, or is this an attempt to stay politically relevant?

It's an excellent way to make sure several US TLAs are looking at WikiLeaks supporters closely.

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