Corporate Power and Responsibility in an Age of WikiLeaks

1. Corporate Power and Responsibility in an Age of WikiLeaks Christian Christensen Professor of Media & Communication Studies Uppsala University, Sweden Twitter: @chrchristensen

2. Famous WikiLeaks Leaks... • WikiLeaks I: Afghanistan • WikiLeaks II: Iraq • WikiLeaks III: The Diplomatic Cables • WikiLeaks IV: Syrian emails • WikiLeaksV: Stratfor

7. Assange is not a 'journalist, any more than the 'editor' of al Qaeda’s new English-language magazine Inspire is a 'journalist.' He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands… (Sarah Palin on Facebook) • We’ve got special ops forces. I mean, a dead man can’t leak stuff. This guy’s a traitor, a treasonous, and he has broken every law of the United States. The guy ought to be—and I’m not for the death penalty—so if I’m not for the death penalty, there’s only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch. (Bob Beckel, Fox News) • Julian Assange poses a clear and present danger to American national security. The WikiLeaks founder is more than a reckless provocateur. He is aiding and abetting terrorists in their war against America. The administration must take care of the problem - effectively and permanently. (Jeffrey Kuhner, “Assassinate Assange?”, Editorial, Washington Times, Dec 2)

9. WikiLeaks, Social Media and Empowerment/Democratic Change: Techno-Utopianism?

10. Morozov: ”Techno-utopianism is usually rooted in rigid and obsolete views about the relationship between authoritarianism and information.”

11. Technology & Power: Critiquing Techno-Utopian Visions • “Twitter Revolutions”: Problematic assumption that in the interrelationship between individual action, politics and technology, technology is the key. • Governments use technology to monitor internet users and their messages and served to rationalize surveillance, disinformation and repression (e.g. with fake websites and proxies to lure users into revealing information).

12. Siemens/Nokia software & hardware used for “deep-packet inspection” of emails & social media content (text and visual). • US government influenced technical activities of Twitter regarding Iran? (denied by Twitter)

13. Technology & Power: Possibilities • Tweets and uploads from Iran/Egypt with information on upcoming protest locations, government disinformation, warnings of police/paramilitary activity, advice on medical care. • Still images and video footage of peaceful protests and state repression. • Occupy Wall Street and other grassroots protest

14. “State power no longer has a hold on information, at least not the way it did before the emergence of the new media with its ability to reconfigure public exchange and social relations while constituting a new sphere of politics.” (Giroux, 2009)

15. Three Digital Myths (inspired by Wikileaks case) • Myth of the Uniformity of ”Social Media” • Myth of the Death of the Nation-State • Myth of the Death of Journalism

16. Myth # 1: The Uniformity of ”Social Media” • Techno-Romanticism • Focus on technology rather than structure • Wikileaks vs. Other ”Social Media” • Access, Review, Reliability

17. Myth #2: The Death of the Nation-State • Academia and the ”Death” thesis • Wikileaks and the ”Death” thesis • Wikileaks and NS • War & NS • Media & NS • Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Press, Protection of Sources (”Whistleblower Laws”), Treason, Extradition

18. Myth #3: The Death of Journalism • Failure of US journalism before and during Afghanistan/Iraq occupations • Wikileaks played off of the capital held by the NYT, Guardian and Der Sp. • Use of NYT, etc. is utilitarian • Wikileaks is not journalism (as I see it), but information collection and archiving • Place for mainstream journalism, but power and influence has shifted

19. Issues raised…? • Transparency as political philosophy • Slacktivism • Freedom of Speech/Press • What is ”journalism”?? • Open Government/Citizenship • Control of Information • Definitions of Democratic Rights • Corp. Responsibility & Sustainability

20. How can we transfer this discussion of WikiLeaks in relation to warfare and foreign policy to a discussion of corporate power?

21. Former New York Times editor Bill Keller (…) wrote that “not all that much” had changed after the WikiLeaks releases, and that the leaks, “did not herald, as the documentarians yearn to believe, some new digital age of transparency. In fact, if there is a larger point, it is quite the contrary.” In other words (…) WikiLeaks is actually responsible for the more aggressive stance taken by the US government in relation to security and surveillance. (Christensen, forthcoming)

22. An alternative reading (…) is that increased surveillance and security is not evidence of the solidification of old relationships, but rather a by-product of changing relationships, or at least the fear of changing relationships. Why would the US increase both surveillance and security, one could ask, if it did not feel that WikiLeaks was in some way a legitimate threat to their power? (ibid.)

23. WikiLeaks (…) forced us to rethink a number of core democratic relationships: between citizens and the state (impacted by WikiLeaks providing access to sensitive intelligence previously hidden from view); between citizens and the media (impacted by WikiLeaks exposure of the shortcomings of an uncritical commercial media system); and between media and governments (impacted by WikiLeaks challenging the mantle of “watchdog” proudly trumpeted by major mainstream news outlets). (Christensen, 2012) • To this we need to add: between citizens and corporate power-holders.

24. Myth 1 (”Uniformity of Social Media”): When considering the impact/use of technology, structure & architechture must be highlighted. • Myth 2 (”Death of Journalism”): What is the interplay between WikiLeaks and MSM in the disseminaton of information & what is impact of this collaboration? • Myth 3: (”Death of NS”): Corporations operate under national & trans-national laws, as does WL.

25. ”3 Pillars of Sustainability”(Gupta) 1. Technology: WikiLeaks, Social Media 2. Institutions: Governance, Law, Education, Economics Police/Military 3. Culture: Transparency, Dissent, Hegemony, Consumption, Social Democracy • What is the interrealtionship between these three re sustainability and CSR?

26. Key Examples of WikiLeaks Corp/Org Whistleblowing • 2009: WHO Expert Working Group draft reports leaked • 2009: Trafigura censored stories • 2009: US shapes 2009 Copenhagen climate agreement through threats. • 2008: Julius Baer & money-laundering in the Grand Caymans • 2008: Membership list of the British National Party (BNP)

27. Forcing developing countries to raise the price of drugs has predictable and well known consequences -- it kills people, and increases suffering. Many people could care less -- including reporters and editors of newspapers. How much of this ends up in the Washington Post, the New York Times or the Guardian these days? But others who do care now have more access to information, and more credibility in their criticisms of government policy, because of the disclosures of the cables. --James Love,Director: Knowledge Ecology International

28. At the heart of the (myths) is the presumption of a causal relationship between access to information and democratic change. The idea that mere access to raw information de facto leads to change (radical or otherwise) is as romantic as the notion that mere access to technology can do the same. Information, just as technology, is only useful if the knowledge and skills required to activate such information are present. (Christensen, 2010)

29. Which means we can end very neatly by coming back to... Technology Institutions Culture

30. christian.christensen@im.uu.se Twitter: @chrchristensen