WikiLeaks doxxed millions of women
Zeynep Tufecsi says that WikiLeaks put women in Turkey in danger with its latest dump of stolen information.
Just days after a bloody coup attempt shook Turkey, WikiLeaks dumped some 300,000 emails they chose to call “Erdogan emails.” In response, Turkey’s internet governance body swiftly blocked access to WikiLeaks.
Turkey’s response was widely reported as “censorship.” Wrong, says Tufecsi.
Journalists and anti-censorship activists who I am in touch with in Turkey have been combing through the leaked documents, and I am not aware of anything “newsworthy” being uncovered. According to the collective searching capacity of long-term activists and journalists in Turkey, none of the “Erdogan emails” appear to be emails actually from Erdogan or his inner circle. Nobody seems to be able to find a smoking gun exposing people in positions of power and responsibility. This doesn’t rule out something eventually emerging, but there have been several days of extensive searching.
However, WikiLeaks also posted links on social media to its millions of followers via multiple channels to a set of leaked massive databases containing sensitive and private information of millions of ordinary people, including a special database of almost all adult women in Turkey.
Yes — this “leak” actually contains spreadsheets of private, sensitive information of what appears to be every female voter in 79 out of 81 provinces in Turkey, including their home addresses and other private information, sometimes including their cellphone numbers.
So that’s horrifying.
We are talking about millions of women whose private, personal information has been dumped into the world, with nary an outcry. Their addresses are out there for every stalker, ex-partner, disapproving relative or random crazy to peruse as they wish. And let’s remember that, every year in Turkey, hundreds of women are murdered, most often by current or ex-husbands or boyfriends, and thousands of women leave their homes or go into hiding, seeking safety.
I have confirmed that these files indeed appear to contain correct private information by confirming that dozens of my friends and family members in multiple cities were included in that database, to my horror, with accurate private data. The files also include whether or not these women were AKP members — right after a brutal and bloody coup attempt to overthrow the AKP.
But hey, it’s data! Data must be free! All of it – no matter what – even if it’s of no legitimate use or interest to anyone, and even if it’s the private information of ordinary people.
I’ve long been critical of the AKP’s censorship practices in Turkey and will continue to speak out. But there is not a single good reason to put so many men and women in such danger of identity theft, harassment and worse — especially after the country was rocked by a bloody coup targeting this political party. I also cannot understand why the leak of such private and sensitive information has been met with such uncritical reporting during such a dangerous week.
Incompetence and laziness could be the only explanation needed.
I hope that people remember this story when they report about a country without checking with anyone who speaks the language; when they support unaccountable, massive, unfiltered leaks without teaming up with responsible parties like journalists and ethical activists; and when they wonder why so many people around the world are wary of “internet freedom” when it can mean indiscriminate victimization and senseless violations of privacy. Discretion is not censorship.
This is absolutely horrifying. It’s hard to wrap my head around how many people have been put in serious danger in one fell swoop. I’m so scared for those people.
Horrifying
Then tell it to Snowden, Greenwald, and Assange.
https://newrepublic.com/article/116253/edward-snowden-glenn-greenwald-julian-assange-what-they-believe
Horrific indeed, I don’t understand why WikiLeaks did that.
@Lady Mondegreen:
That hatchet piece is somewhat disingenuous. Regardless of Snowden’s politics or motives, leaking those files was – overall – the right thing to do. The alliance with Greenwald was also the right thing to do and showed a measure of responsibility, whether intentional or not. Prior to the leaks we knew that our governments were spying on us but didn’t understand the range and extent of that spying or its almost complete lack of oversight. This is information that no government should have and which can only be misused. I wouldn’t and don’t trust any government which conducts mass surveillance of its citizens. Having access to such data is always too much of a temptation and surveillance powers only ever increase.
These files were of global importance and their leaking – in my opinion – justified. Publishing people’s private data certainly is not. The only possible benefit is to those people who wish to do others harm. Horrible.
@3
Vile people. Enablers of Putin and Erdogan. Heroes of the regressive left. Very dangerous people.
@Helene
How have Snowden and Greenwald enabled Putin and Erdogan?
@6
Useful idiots.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/andreisoldatov/how-edward-snowden-inadvertenly-helped-vladimir-putins-inter
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/17/ok-i-have-had-it-with-the-moral-posturing-of-glenn-greenwald-and-edward-snowden/
Etc.
Helene: In the case of Snowden, it’s more like ‘desperate idiot’. The Obama Administration put him in a position where he had a choice–he could be feted by Putin, or jailed in America. From his point of view, it was the lesser of two evils.