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[DeeDee Halleck]

The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/> / *By* *Patrick
Kingsley <http://www.alternet.org/authors/12391/>*
[image: comments_image] 18
COMMENTS<http://www.alternet.org/story/150265/assange%3A_the_internet_could_create_a_%22totalitarian_spying_regime%22?akid=6668.22219.xDa9hL&rd=1&t=6#disqus_thread>
Assange: The Internet Could Create a "Totalitarian Spying Regime"
Assange said the web could allow greater government transparency, but also
gave authorities their best ever opportunity to monitor and catch
dissidents.
*March 15, 2011*  |

*Photo Credit: AFP*




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The internet <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet> is the
"greatest spying machine the world has ever seen" and is not a technology
that necessarily favours the freedom of speech, the
WikiLeaks<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks>
 co-founder, Julian Assange <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/julian-assange>,
has claimed in a rare public appearance.

Assange acknowledged that the web could allow greater government
transparency and better co-operation between activists, but said it 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," he
told students at Cambridge University. Hundreds queued for hours to attend.

He continued: "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. 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."

Assange also suggested that Facebook and Twitter played less of a role in
the unrest in the Middle East than has previously been argued by social
media commentators and politicians.

He said: "Yes [Twitter and Facebook] did play a part, although not nearly as
large a part as al-Jazeera. But the guide produced by Egyptian
revolutionaries … says on the first page, 'Do not use Facebook and Twitter',
and says on the last page, 'Do not use Facebook and Twitter'.

"There is a reason for that. There was actually a Facebook revolt in Cairo
three or four years ago. It was very small … after it, Facebook was used to
round-up all the principal participants. They were then beaten, interrogated
and incarcerated."

Assange said that cables released by WikiLeaks played a key role in both
fomenting unrest in the Middle East and forcing the US government not to
back former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Assange said diplomatic cables concerning US attitudes to the former
Tunisian regime had given strength to revolutionary forces across the
region.

"The Tunisian cables showed clearly that if it came down to it, the US, if
it came down to a fight between the military on the one hand, and Ben Ali's
political regime on the other, the US would probably support the military."

He continued: "That is something that must have also caused neighbouring
countries to Tunisia some thought: that is that if they militarily
intervened, they may not be on the same side as the United States."

Assange, who is appealing against his extradition to Sweden on alleged sex
charges, said the WikiLeaks releases had also forced the US to drop their
tacit support of Mubarak.

"As a result of releasing cables about Suleiman [the vice-president of Egypt
under Mubarak], the US and Israel's preferred option for regime takeover in
Egypt, as a result of releasing cables about Mubarak's approval of
Suleiman's torture methods, it was not possible for Joseph Biden to [repeat
his earlier claim that Mubarak was not a dictator]. It was not possible for
Hillary Clinton to publicly come out and support Mubarak's regime."

Responding to a question about Bradley Manning, the US soldier incarcerated
for allegedly leaking classified information, Assange said: "We have no idea
whether he is one of our sources. All our technology is geared up to make
sure we have no idea."

-- 
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