The first time I heard of Wikileaks was during Assange's arrest after being accused of sexually assaulting two women a few years ago. Considering a site that could be considered so detrimental to society, I find it quite strange that I'd never heard of it before that. Though I just gained knowledge of the site, I believe that the website is quite unscrupulous and should be de-activated.
People have always had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that people may have knowledge of topics far beyond their own. But isn't that what we choose the goverment for? I've always thought of it like we elect people like the President, Senators, Congressmen, and so on in hopes that they deal with the hot and heavy stuff concerning the contry, in order to allow the general public to go on enjoying life and not have to worry about certain issues. Wikileaks definitely changes this. By allowing the population access to potentially-damaging documents and letting them in on big secrets, it can change the attitude of a nation completely.
As Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, stated in the video, once a document had been released to the population of a nation approaching a fairly large election, it completely swayed the attitudes of the voters and in a way corrupted what otherwise would've been. Julian claims that it reveals the true abuse of the government, but why is it crucial to know all about our governments 'abuse'? I believe that's definitely a cause of the constant bickering and unrest in countries today. Everyone has to be so cautious of what they say and how they act. Isn't allowing the viewing of Wikileaks just blowing people's feelings wide open? It definitely isn't helping to mend the broken bridges of a country's history, but rather causing a new distrust between the people and their leaders.
Assange also states a few times throughout the video that he typically has no knowledge of the source of a document or piece sent in. This is sort of a scary thought because it could be a falsified piece of information, only to drastically change someone's life for unnecessary reasons. Julian then continues to defend the site by saying that the documents don't exactly change people's perception for the people in the affected area who see these acts daily, but only the country and people the document is directed towards. This is quite unfair because the view that one nation has on another shouldn't sway a third and irrelevant nation's view or feelings toward the active nation's people.
Everyone in association with Wikileaks may think they're being a hero by showing what's truly going on in the world and providing information that's restricted, but I believe that some things are secret and should remain so for a reason. If the government and leaders wanted the people to know the elements of interest, they would take action and release the information themselves. Now someone that doesn't even live in our country is unmasking our government's current state and trying to influence us. To me this is morally wrong and for that reason I feel the Wikileaks site should be taken down. Just like the saying says, "what you don't know can't hurt you" and this I believe applies in this case.
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