by Josh Averbach ‘18

For years, Wikileaks has been a disruptive presence in American politics, frequently, and often illegally, exposing documents that were never intended for the public eye. Particularly during the recent election, Wikileaks played a significant role. For example, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned after Wikileaks released documents indicating that she conspired against Bernie Sanders in the primaries. While increasing government transparency is a noble goal, Wikileaks takes the wrong approach to bring about this change.

One problem with Wikileaks lies in its its unethical means of obtaining information, such as stealing private conversations. For example, the aforementioned documents pertaining to the DNC came from a private email exchange between several DNC staffers, which was infiltrated by hackers. Even if the person being spied is an elected official, is spying really a moral way of obtaining information?

Another reason to shun Wikileaks is that some documents should remain hidden from the public eye, including classified government files pertaining to national security. In 2010, for example, Wikileaks released hundreds of thousands of classified military documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This type of information has the potential to put Americans in danger should the enemy seize it.

Unfortunately, Wikileaks appears to only release information that furthers their political agenda. During the election, Wikileaks published enormous quantities of damaging information about Hillary Clinton. However, Wikileaks spared Donald Trump. Given that Trump’s campaign was racked by numerous scandals, it is hard to believe that Wikileaks had no information that could damage Trump. It seems as though Wikileaks shrewdly decided what information to unveil in order to manipulate public perception of the candidates.

Proponents of Wikileaks praise it as a crusader for government transparency. Yes, the U.S. and governments around the world could stand to open up. But there are better ways to achieve this. For example, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1967 allows citizens to request and gain access to unreleased government files. While one can argue that FOIA does not go far enough, it demonstrates that transparency can be increased through government reform, rather than through illegal and unethical outlets like Wikileaks.