Internet is a great spying machine: Assange
Thursday, 17 March 2011, 09:21 IST   |    2 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
Internet is a great spying machine: Assange
London: Dubbing the internet internet as the world's greatest spying machine, the co-founder of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks Jullian Assange said that it's an obstacle to free speech, according to a media report. Addressing a group of students at Cambridge University, Assange said that the web could allow greater government transparency and better co-operation between activists, the Guardian reported. However, he added, that it also gave authorities their best ever opportunity to monitor and catch dissidents. "While the Internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing, and to let us co-operate with each other to hold repressive governments and repressive corporations to account, it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," the Guardian quoted Assange as saying. "It [the web] is not a technology that favours freedom of speech. It is not a technology that favours human rights. It is not a technology that favours civil life. Rather it is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen," he said. "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 added. According to the former computer hacker, cables released by WikiLeaks played a key role in both fomenting unrest in the Middle East and forcing the U.S. government not to back former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The 39-year-old Australian, currently fighting extradition to Sweden over allegations of sex offences, also added that diplomatic cables concerning U.S. attitudes to the former Tunisian regime had given strength to revolutionary forces across the region, the newspaper reported. The event was reportedly well attended with students, but the university decided to keep it out of media coverage. WikiLeaks' U.S. embassy cables related to India are currently being published in the Indian news media. Similar leaks in the western news media had created a stir recently.
Source: PTI
Votal AI: Redefining Workforce Efficiency Through Ethical AI