The Empowerment Of Civil Society By Using Technology Media Essay

The Em tycoonment Of urbane Society By Using Technology Media Es offerThe use of knowledge applied science oer the years has fuck off a means of semipolitical and social change resulting in the em federal agencyment of gracious bon ton and withal offspringing public assessment though sharing info via profit blogging, instructive sack upsites, etc. It has in addition been actually(prenominal) palmy in exposing violations of mankind right-hand(a)s, courtly liberties, corruption, and misuse of power by various inter matter organisations and judicatures. One much(prenominal) website which has get tod an international uproar between officials of responsibilitys and well-manneredised inn is Wikileaks. In my render I shall discuss the impact of in springation engineering science on gracious participation following which I shall discuss the positive and negative activist and legal effects Wikileaks has on civil society and states. I shall too discuss the effec t of Information engine room and Wikileaks on democracy, positive human rights, secrecy and transp arncy.Over the years some citizenry around the human race pass become increasingly aw are of the expanding use of selective information engineering, which has become a tool for social and political change globally. The use of lucre all all over the human has empowered civil society and umpteen a(prenominal) social activists to share information instantly with one a nonher. Technologies such(prenominal)(prenominal) as net websites, electronic mail, mobile phones, etc., hurt given more power to activists to communicate legally with more stack around the world than constantly before. The profit appends access to publications, recents stories, reports and gives opportunities to discover information that is normally sup forceed (e.g. Wikileaks). The net great deal be apply as a fair or tool for whistle blowers and journalists to whodunite information concerning unethical demeanour of giving medication activitys and corporations which can be difficult to trace and censor. Due to the advancement of information engineering science and as a result the age of the net income, there is very little that is really secret these days.1 hitherto the drawbacks to such information engine room is that it is in like manner misused for wrongful purposes, such as terrorism, sex- occupationking, cyber hacking, as strong as spreading information which can be false or dangerous and as a result harmful to early(a)s etc. The internet has showed that it is a useful space in which citizens can debate, discuss or negotiate on mevery social, political and economic issues. Such give-and-take has a profound effect on public printing around the world and encourages society towards a true democratic system. It is also an effective tool for civil rights organisations to communicate to stack and to themes in different split of the world done email, websites and forums. Moreover, due to the advancement of information technology civil activists can keep in touch with supporters and campaigners effectively and effortlessly.2Wikileaks is a website which describes itself as an activist organisation or in other words the science agency of the people.3Wikileaks is an international non-profit organisation that works for transparency and publishes submissions of private or secret, classified information from anonymous freshlys sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers.4The website relies on member 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states, Everyone has the right to throw overboarddom of opinion and ex complotion this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and kick in information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.5The website works towards uncovering government, exclusive and corporate corruption though leaked sources and bringing it to the attention of civ il society. In 2006 Wikileaks won many awards from organizations such as Amnesty International and the economic expert for exposing issues around the world.6The advancement of information technology allows the internet and so as to say Wikileaks the ability to receive and publish leaked information cheaply and quickly. In addition the website has the ability to bypass the legal framework that would otherwise have to go though courts and officials to consider before being dis dummy upd.Wikileaks has been successful in uncovering many illegal activities and corruption scandals starting from 2006 when it published information concerning assassination details of government officials by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, corruption by the family of the former Kenyan croaker Daniel arap Moi, allegations of illegal activities at the Cayman Islands furcate of the Swiss Bank Julius Baer and the revelation of involvement of politicians and businessmen in the 2008 Peru petroleum scandal.7Wikileaks h as been successful in uncovering many human rights violations and civil liberties. just about(a) of the most famous revelations that it uncover were the documents regarding hidden war crimes or captive abuse. In March 2007 Wikileaks published a leaked manual of the US legions for the Guantanamo prison camp. In July 2010, Wikileaks published the sheepskin coat War diary, which was a compilation of more than 76,900 documents concerning the war in Afghanistan. The documents stated the number of innocent deaths of civilians that had been covered up by the international forces. Also in October 2010 Wikileaks, along with some media organisations, publishd the Iraq War logs which included almost 400,000 documents. The documents revealed evidence of torture and more than 109,000 cutthroat deaths between 2004 and 2009 including 66,081 civilians. This was considered one of the biggest leaks in US military history.8In November 2010 Wikileaks started to publish US state department diploma tic c equal to(p)s. Many of these cables were labelled confidential, secret or top secret by the US state department. This march on antagonised governments, more so than the leak of previous documents. The US government therefore suggested that the revelation of such documents put at risk lives of several of its people and allies around the world.9A number of civil rights activists were divided over the actions taken by Wikileaks. Many activists supported Wikileaks and the importance of uncovering and exposing such documents which revealed and brought to the attention of the world violations of human rights, civil liberties, corruption, and misuse of power by various international organisations and governments. Activists weighd that this would support and justify the idea of a fair, functional and democratic civil society. Many civil activists believed that such misuse of power to cover such violations needed to be addressed openly though legal means in order to nourish citizen s from arbitrary government authority.10In addition it can also be said that due to the popularity that Wikileaks has gained over the years, documents published on the website could also have an effect on potential political reform. Also documents published on the website could have either a positive or a negative effect on civil society including political or economic decisions made by states, as well as international relations and policy decisions. In such eludings one can argue that information technology has been successful in uniting people all over the world by sharing knowledge, debating political and economic issues, revealing human rights violations and civil liberties thereby bringing change to public opinion and encouraging a free transparent democratic society.On the other commit several activists did not agree to the actions taken by Wikileaks particularly in the case of the Afghan War Diary. They believed that the exposure of such documents led to the revelation of identities of many people who had collaborated with the coalition in Afghanistan, which endangered such people to further violence. excite freedom groups, many human rights groups including Amnesty International, accused Wikileaks of being unconditional for the publication of the afghan war logs.11The criticism of Wikileaks gave rise to the public opinion that it was doing more harm than good. Many argued that this would most probably increase internet surveillance, more secrecy and further restrictions. In addition it encouraged people to believe that the publication of classified secret government information would reach it more difficult to support and protect people and sources after such information is disclosed. Furthermore, the consequences of publishing such documents on Wikileaks would result in the damage of protection of the sources mentioned within the documents and sources from where the information was retrieved. The outcome of such revelations could therefore lead to an extreme kind of transparency which would result in the loss of jobs, spirit or lives, etc., for such sources, which questions the fact of how this would positively support democracy and civil society. Therefore one can also argue that information technology can be used to leak confidential information which can result in stricter laws, regulation and increased internet surveillance.Whilst Wikileaks brought to light many issues concerning corruption and violations of human rights and civil liberties through the publication of documents and diplomatic cables, this release of classified information angered governments throughout the world, especially the United States which was associated with many of the of leaks. As a result governments pressured many online companies to limit or layover their association with Wikileaks. Amazon dropped Wikileaks from its servers, which temporarily moved Wikileaks to be inaccessible. Later, Swiss bank PostFinance froze the conductor of Wikil eaks website Julian Assanges assets, while PayPal, a money transfer website, disabled Wikileaks aim which it used to collect donations. MasterCard and Visa also followed suit by refusing donations to Wikileaks.12 indeed it can be argued that governments and corporations are also activists and use information technology to promote their own agenda for instance in the case of Wikileaks, clamping brush up on activities which they do not consent to or which are not beneficial to them economically or politically.When financial services were denied to Wikileaks, a group of anonymous activists under the name of Anonymous carried out decentralised lash outs on many corporations websites such as MasterCard and Visa. Around the world thousands of online protesters got together to form a virtual internet attack under the name of cognitive operation Payback. Operation Payback used denial of service (DDoS) attacks to temporarily close down the websites which had opposed Wikileaks. This way s uch websites cannot handle the level of web traffic and are temporarily inaccessible to users around the world. DDoS attacks are internet piracy actions and not hacking but are nevertheless illegal and traceable. It is believed that through such a system of online attacks, Wikileaks produced one of the first global internet civil-disobedience movements.13Thus one can say that internet activists can also use information technology to rebel and forcefully further their cause against individuals, corporations or the state through the internet.While many online activists admit that the attack was illegal they disagree on it being malicious criminal hacking since they believe that they did not intend to bring any collateral damage to the public. Online activists believed this would pinch sensation of internet censorship and protect freedom of expression. They argued that that the internet should be free and not controlled by governments. Many of these activists believed that the ground s for stoppage of donations though corporations was more politically motivated than legally towards the Wikileaks website. On the other hand, these corporations argued that Wikileaks violate the companies terms of service concerning illegal behaviour. Furthermore activists pointed out that while many leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Guardian, etc. also published parts of classified documents from Wikileaks, no action was taken against them.14The Wikileaks case therefore raises several questions on popular participation of civil society using the internet and information technology to disseminate information in an effort to voice their opinions and bring about social and political awareness to instigate changes in a society.The Wikileaks saga has created many future legal concerns over the use of information technology and the internet in particular. There are concerns over increased forms of internet censorship and surveillance. The US has introduced a billhoo k called the Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination Act which is aimed at preventing websites such as Wikileaks publishing classified information which could result in the via media of national certificate. The US is also in the process of introducing the wiretapping bill which is soon under discussion. The bill is aimed at wiretapping all kinds of online communication and internet traffic which includes foreign based service providers and willing require software developers to alter peer-to-peer communication, redesign their service and allow interception.15However many information technology advocates have argued that by implementing so many restrictions over the internet would create holes that could be exploited by hackers and undermine the right to freedom of speech.The US furious over the leak of confidential diplomatic cables, tried to kindle the Espionage Act 1917 to engross the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for the leak of classified governm ent documents. Under the Act, it a crime to disclose classified information unlawfully however it does not state any distinction on who discloses such classified information. Activists have argued that this would be complicated since the founder is technically the publishing house and not the one who revealed the classified information. The man who did reveal the classified information Bradley Manning is currently being prosecuted for leaking the confidential government documents. Thus by sensational Julian Assange, or any of the leading newspapers that were involved, would further mean that any citizen who addresses or discusses classified information can be arrested on national security grounds.16Assange being a foreign citizen he would have to be extradited to the US to stand trial for espionage (if a orbit is prepared to hand him over). The US first amendment of the institution provides a lot of protection for publishers of state secrets, not including government officials. If the government is successful to get around the Constitution and charge Assange, it may end up damaging the press freedoms enjoyed by every publisher. It would result in Wikileaks paying the price for freedom of the press in the US and many parts of the world.17Many journalist activists have argued that to criminalise what Wikileaks is doing is to criminalise investigative journalism. They argue that the media is responsible to report square that comes within its possession and any pressure to shutdown Wikileaks or prosecute those who publish official leaks or companies that are doing business with it, is a terror to democracy, which relies on a free and fearless press.18However criminalising Wikileaks will not be an easy task. Wikileaks has multiple servers in many jurisdictions with generous whistleblower-protection laws. These servers are all subject to the laws of the state, where they are each connected in. The laws in these states protect the safety of such information bei ng passed on from the servers. Currently Wikileaks is protect by the laws of different jurisdictions to pass information freely, however it is unsure whether these laws will continue to favour Wikileaks in the future if there is any pressures from other states to change or limit them.19Critics argue that the legal impact of Wikileaks on information technology will create a borderless nature of the internet. They say that Wikileaks has encouraged the fact that the internet can also be used to undermine the relationship between legally significant (online) phenomena and physical mending. That the increase in the use of computer network all over the world is destroying the link between geographical location and (i) the authority of local anaesthetic government to assert control over internet behaviour (ii) the effects of internet behaviour on people or things (iii) the legality of the efforts of a local government to enforce rules applicable to worldwide phenomena and (iv) the abili ty of geographical location to give notice of which sets of rules can apply. This could make online organisations or individuals absent themselves or even exploit legal or social norms of any country by the use of multiple servers, mirrors or other information technology tools.20The legal impact of Wikileaks will have a negative effect on information technology. Due to much legislation in the credit line in the US aiming to increase restrictions on the use of internet censorship and blocking of websites would affect users, organizations and library associations around the world. The consequence of Wikileaks will be used as a case to support such new bills, surveillance practices and use of information technologies which extend capabilities of censorship and data surveillance, then(prenominal)ceforth resulting in less transparency and freedom of speech.21If Wikileaks is shut down for good then most probably a new Wikileaks will search any measure in the future. Information secur ity is never a single security measure since it is always more of them together meaning the measures are not only information technology related, but also involve organizational issues, human resources management, physical security and legal protection. The problem with information technology and the internet is that it is advancing day by day. The internet has the power for information to be quickly copied, duplicated, published and spread around the world. If Wikileaks is closed down, then new websites similar to Wikileaks will spring up or new technological ways to publish information will spring up. In other words, the threat of leaking information to the public is constantly increasing. Therefore fashioning it harder and harder to regulate and waiting for new legislation /laws for trying to curb it. It is very difficult to draft a law that targets Wikileaks and websites alike at the said(prenominal) time also leaving intact many legal systems concerning press freedoms.22Info rmation technology has become a tool for social and political change worldwide. The use of internet has globally empowered civil society and many social activists to share information instantly with one another(prenominal) thereby effecting public opinion around the world and encourage society towards a true democratic system. Wikileaks has been successful in exposing violations of human rights, civil liberties, corruption, and misuse of power by various international organisations and governments. On the solely I believe that citizens of a functioning democracy should be able to know what the state is saying and doing in their name and not prosecute in acts of counter-democracy.23Information technology such as Wikileaks plainly improves those abilities. However I also believe that there should be equilibrium, where democracy and fundamental rights are not undermined by too much secrecy or too much transparency. The right to publish should be equal to the citizens right to know. N evertheless a balance should be kept for the need of ain privacy, confidentiality and disclosure in the interest of the public at the same time guaranteeing liberty, accountability and true democratic choice.(2998 words)