What Should Wikileakers Leak Next?
Nick Kapur’s halfway satirical list includes “the disappearance of Crystal Pepsi” and the “the embarrassing lack of college football playoffs.” But with a new banking-related leak promised next, plus a proliferation of Wiki-Clones, it’s fair to ask: what sort of information would we most like to have from the digital leakerati?
Those who have followed my posts can probably guess my answer: less salacious gossip, more targeted information on specific cases of wrong-doing, always done in a manner that protects individuals named in documents.
Also perhaps documentation of specific decision-making processes in areas where absent transparency it is impossible for citizens to judge whether their governments are breaching fundamental human rights norms. This would not include things like mass numbers of diplomatic cables, most of which are discreet for very appropriate reasons, but it would include things like the release of the Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures in 2007. Or to give a more recent example, I am not sure that a leak illuminating the process by which the US government makes targeted killing decisions wouldn’t do more good than harm – especially now that efforts to use the courts have failed.
Readers: what would you like to see from the new generation of leakers, and what would you prefer not to see?