Julian Assange

About

Julian Assange is an Australian journalist and political activist best known as the founder and editor-in-chief of the international whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks. Since November 2010, Assange has been wanted by the British government for extradition to Sweden under an European Arrest Warrant relating to a sexual assault investigation and currently resides inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London as a political refugee.

Online History

in December 2006, WikiLeaks was launched as a non-profit organization under the directorship of Julian Assange. Within the first year of launch, the site claimed that its database consists of more than 1.2 million documents. Assange also serves as member on the Board of Directors for the website's parent company The Sunshine Press.

Julian Assange first rose to international prominence in April 2010 with the WikiLeaks release of Collateral Murder, a 39-minute video footage depicting the U.S. military air strikes against Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists in the district of New Baghdad in Iraq. The footage instantly sparked outrage online, followed by a national debate in the U.S. news media about the conducts of U.S. troops overseas and the role of whistleblowing and investigative journalism during wartime.

2010 United States Diplomatic Cables Leak refers to a series of events that took place after WikiLeaks publicly disclosed over 200,000 classified diplomatic cables originally issued by the U.S. State Department's 300 missions overseas. The leak promptly drew harsh criticisms from the U.S. government and they pressing on the affiliates of WikiLeaks to halt their financial transactions with WikiLeaks. As a result, WikiLeaks’ server host Amazon dropped their service, while Mastercard and PayPal ceased all transactions of funds donated by the supporters of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

In retaliation against the U.S.-led sanctions of WikiLeak and its editor-in-chief, an Anonymous contingent associated with Operation Payback launched several waves of DDoS attacks against various companies whom they perceived as enemies of Julian Assange that became known as Operation Avenge Assange.

In March 2011, The Guardian and other news sources reported that DreamWorks Studio will produce a Hollywood adaptation of Wikileaks and Julian Assange based on WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World’s Most Dangerous Website by former Wikileaks spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by British journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding. Titled The Fifth Estate and envisioned as a political investigative thriller, the film will chronicle the history of the organization through the eyes of Domscheit-Berg, from its early days to the eventual fallout between Assange and Domscheit-Berg following their rise to fame.

During the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013, more details about the film and the cast were revealed through a press release, along with the first official photograph of the lead actors (shown above). Set for theatrical release on November 15th, 2013, the film is directed by Bill Condon and stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as Wikileaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange and German actor Daniel Brühl as the former spokesperson of the website Daniel Domscheit-Berg. On January 28th, Assange revealed that he has obtained a leaked copy of the film script and critiqued it as a “mass propaganda attack” during a speech at the Oxford Union (shown below).

On October 17th, 2016, the @Wikileaks^[7] Twitter account tweeted that Assange's "internet link" had been "intentionally severed by a state party" at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, England (shown below, left). That afternoon, the account posted a follow-up message claiming that Ecuador shut down Assange's internet access after Wikileaks released transcripts of speeches delivered by Hillary Clinton to the multinational finance company Goldman Sachs (shown below, right).^[8]

Meanwhile, Edward Snowden retweeted @Wikileaks, stating that "censorship is never the answer" (shown below).

The following day, Ecuadorean Embassy released a statement affirming their commitment to granting Assange asylum, but did not comment on whether they had disabled his internet access.^[9]

"In view of recent speculations, the government of Ecuador reaffirms the validity of the asylum granted four years ago to Julian Assange. We also ratify that the protection given by the Ecuadorean state will continue while the circumstances that led to the granting of asylum remain."

Also on October 18th, @Wikileaks tweeted that Democrat Party politician John Kerry had urged the Ecuadorian government to prevent Assange from releasing Clinton documents (shown below). That day, the U.S. State Department released a statement to the press denying the claims.^[10]

On March 28th, 2018, the Ecuadorian government cut off access to Julian Assange's internet access for a second time.^[26] The government believes that his actions on social media "put at risk the good relations [Ecuador] maintains with the United Kingdom, with the other states of the European Union, and with other nations."^[29]

The decision was met by outrage by several prominent public people. That day, Megaupload creator Kim Dotcom tweeted,^[27] "🚨 URGENT ASSANGE ALERT 🚨 Julian Assange has had his Internet disconnected and is not allowed any visitors If you’re in LONDON please gather immediately outside the Ecuadorian Embassy Demand “Reconnect Julian” Until Julian is back online Thank you 🚨 URGENT ASSANGE ALERT 🚨" The post (shown below, left) received more than 11,000 retweets and 15,000 likes in 24 hours.

Later that day, Dotcom posted an image of protestors in front of Assange's location at the Ecuadorian Embassy. He tweeted,^[30] "The first protesters are arriving at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to demand that Julian Assange will be reconnected to the Internet. #ReconnectJulian." The post (shown below, center) received more than 2,400 retweets and 4,000 likes in 24 hours.

Additionally, film director Oliver Stone tweeted,^[27] "Urgent: Free Assange! Restore his internet connection! #ReconnectJulian." The post (shown below, right) received more than 3,500 retweets and 4,100 likes in 24 hours. In the coming days, others began tweeting the support of assange with the similar hashtag "#ReconnectAssange."^[31]^[32]

Since Assange's internet access ban, he has not been seen or heard from as of November 16th, 2016. This caused his supporters to wonder about his whereabouts using the hashtag "#WhereIsAssange." The subreddit /r/WhereIsAssange^[11] is devoted to the same purpose, and has over 3,600 readers. On November 15th, HauntedCemetery^[12] asked a question about why people are suspicious of Assange's disappearance on /r/OutOfTheLoop in a post that gained 221 points. A response from AurelianoTampa explained:

To try and stop one of the less scrupulous from whisking [Wikileaks] away never to be seen again, they have a history of releasing "insurance files"; a huge amount of encrypted files that, in the event that the site or its members disappear, can be unlocked with the release of digital key. These insurance files also have a checksum feature so that if the files are ever released, people can verify that the information inside them has not been altered or changed from the original upload… A new insurance file was recently uploaded, but the checksum string had been changed.^[13] This probably means one of two things: A) Either someone at Wikileaks made a mistake and accidentally made a modification to the insurance files. B) Someone is changing files and uploading them while pretending to be Wikileaks.

This event and the disappearance of Assange has led some to theorize that Wikileaks has been compromised.

On January 12th, 2017, the @Wikileaks^[14] Twitter feed announced that Assange would agree to U.S. extradition if Barack Obama granted "clemency" to Chelsea Manning (shown below). Within six days, the tweet received upwards of 6,800 retweets and 5,800 likes.

On January 17th, 2017, Obama commuted Manning’s jail term with an expected release from the United States Disciplinary Barracks, a military correctional facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 17th, 2017. That day, the @Wikileaks Twitter feed announced that Assange's lawyer stated "Everything that he said he's standing by" and that "Assange is confident of winning any fair trial in the US" (shown below).^[15]^[16]

That evening, Twitter^[17] created a Moments page titled "Will Julian Assange accept extradition after Manning clemency?", highlighting various tweets discussing the possible extradition.

On January 18th, The Hill^[18] published a statement by Assange's lawyer Barry Pollack, who announced that the commutation did not meet the conditions for Assange's extradition:

"Mr. Assange welcomes the announcement that Ms. Manning's sentence will be reduced and she will be released in May, but this is well short of what he sought. Mr. Assange had called for Chelsea Manning to receive clemency and be released immediately."

On May 19th, 2017, The New York Times^[19] reported that a rape investigation into Assange had been dropped by Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny in Sweden. However, British authorities claimed they would arrest Assange if he attempted to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for failing to appear in court in 2012. That day, posts about the announcement reached the front page of the /r/worldnews,^[21] /r/news,^[22] /r/Wikileaks^[23] and /r/The_Donald^[24] subreddits. That day, Twitter published a Moments^[24] page titled "Sweden drops rape investigation against Julian Assange." That day, Assange tweeted that he had been detained in the embassy for years while his "children grew up" and his "name was slandered," noting "I do not forgive or forget" (shown below). Within two hours, the tweet garnered upwards of 6,100 likes and 2,900 retweets.^[25]

On July 20th, 2018, Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno visited London to meet with British officials with the claimed purpose of discussing the 2018 Global Disability Summit. On July 20th, RT^[33] published an article titled "Ecuador to hand over Assange to UK ‘in coming weeks or days,’ own sources tell RT's editor-in-chief." The following day, The Intercept^[34] published an article confirming the claims, citing an anonymous source with connections to the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, YouTuber Tim Pool uploaded a video discussing the news (shown below). In the video, Pool argues that the arrest of Assange "could be devastating for press freedoms" (shown below).

On November 15th, 2018, The Washington Post reported that an unsealed indictment for an unrelated sex crime case involving Seitu Sulayman Kokayi unintentionally revealed that Assange had been charged by the United States attorney office in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The following day, the article was submitted to /r/politics^[35] by Redditor rollwave21, where it received upwards of 22,100 points (91% upvoted) and 2,700 comments.

On April 11th, 2019, Assange was arrested and removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London by the Metropolitan Police for failure to surrender in court for his 2012 extradition to Sweden. That day, the international news agency Ruptly tweeted a video of the arrest (shown below).

BREAKING: #Assange removed from embassy – video pic.twitter.com/qsHy7ZVPg5

Following the arrest, Ecuadorian president Lenin Morena announced that Assange's asylum had been withdrawn, citing Wikileaks leak of Vatican documents and "interfering in internal affairs of other states" as reasons for the decision. According to the BBC,^[38] Morena also accused Assange of "blocking security cameras at the embassy, accessing security files and confronting guards." Meanwhile, Assange was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion by a grand jury for the Eastern District of Virginia.^[40] That day, a Moments page was created on Twitter^[39] highlighting various tweets about the arrest. Edward Snowden referred to the arrest as "a dark moment for press freedom" (shown below, left).^[41] Meanwhile, Salon writer Amanda Marcotte tweeted that Assange "wouldn't be in this situation" if only "he hated women less" (shown below, right).

In response to the arrest, actress Pamela Anderson posted several tweets condemning Ecuador, the United Kingdom and United States President Donald Trump. That day, Twitter published a Moments^[36] page about Anderson's tweets. Meanwhile, NBC reporter Christina Ginn tweeted^[37] a sketch of Assange in court (shown below).