The Times has an article which mentions wikileaks in connection with techniques which terrorists or their sympathisers might use to distribute kidnap/torture/murder videos online.
This is somewhat ironic, given that the article is prompted by leaks and briefings from anonymous "security sources", in the aftermath of the arrest of 9 people in the Birmingham area, under the Terrorism Act 2000.
None of these people have yet been charged with anything, yet there are detailed allegations and hysterical media speculation about an alleged plot to kidnap, torture and murder a serving Islamic British soldier, and to post videos of this on the internet.
Parts of these sort of atrocity videos are ghoulishly broadcast or printed by the image hungry mainstream media, giving the terrorists the oxygen of publicity which they seek.
Times Online January 31, 2007Kidnap videos and how extremists post them online
Jonathan Richards[...]
An underground organisation called Wikileaks is also developing a protocol which would enable employees in oppressive regimes to post incriminating documents online without fear of being traced.A separate question is whether the site on which a post has been made can be traced and compelled to disclose details.
Sites hosted in Britain are subject to British law, but if a site is hosted on an ISP in another country, the ability of police to compel the ISP to reveal details of the site’s users will depend on the laws of that country.
N.B. this article appears as a shorter, less detailed article on 1st February 2007 in the print version of the newspaper , which does not mention www.WikiLeaks.org
The articles also do not mention the large number of non-website methods of distribution of such propaganda videos e.g. through peer-to-peer networks or email or via mobile phones etc.
Will those people involved with WikiLeaks therefore be treated as terrorists by the mainstream media and by law enforcement authorities and intelligence agencies ?
Will they come under pressure to reveal the anonymous sources of WikiLeaks documents or videos etc. ?
How can the WikiLeaks model resist the serving of a legal "takedown notice" such as is already law in the United Kingdom under the , which criminalise the "encouragement of terrorism" and the "dissemination of terrorist publications" ?
The Terrorism Act 2006 claims world wide legal jurisdiction and the penalties for these sections, of up to 7 years imprisonment, mean that such offences are serious enough to permit extradition to the United Kingdom from abroad.
Other European Union countries appear to be planning to do something similar.
The relevant section in the WikiLeaks FAQ does not give much reassurance on this point:
Is Wikileaks concerned about any legal consequences?Our roots are in dissident communities and our focus is on non-western authoritarian regimes. Consequently we believe a politically motivated legal attack on us would be seen as a grave error in western administrations. However, we are prepared, structurally and technically, to deal with all legal attacks. We design the software, and promote its human rights agenda, but the servers are run by anonymous volunteers. Because we have no commercial interest in the software, there is no need to restrict its distribution. In the very unlikely event that we were to face coercion to make the software censorship friendly, there are many others who will continue the work in other jurisdictions.
Keep up the good work!