A few days ago Wikileaks tweeted a few things about Aaron Swartz.
Aaron Swarts committed suicide on January 11, 2013, allegedly because of a major lawsuit over downloading academic material. In their tweets, they hinted that Swartz may or may not have been a contributor. They also hinted that he was in contact with Julian Assange (head man of Wikileaks), and that Swartz "assisted" Wikileaks. Weather or not Swartz did what Wikileaks suggested, it was irresponsible of them to suggest it publicly.
Wikileaks entire operation relies on contributors being able to trust that their submissions, or assistance will remain completely anonymous. Without this guarantee, it would be idiotic to submit anything to them. By posting these tweets, they possibly compromised one of their sources and ruined their claims of anonymity. They have also possibly put the immediate family of Swartz in risk. If someone did not suspect Swartz of leaking something before, now it is possible they will look to his family for revenge.
Aside from this ruining their contract with their leakers, their claims are also very vague. By saying that Swartz assisted Wikileaks, it could mean anything from, "he once held the door open for Julian Assange", to, "he payed for all server space". They also mention that Swartz was in communication with Assange at one point. Considering both men were up to their eye brows in legal trouble, it is very possible they were only discussing their lawsuits.
TL;DR Wikileaks screwed up by posting about Aaron Swartz.
Source:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/19/3893268/wikileaks-tweets-aaron-swartz-was-ally-and-possibly-source
Thanks for this, Chris. It is always interesting to track what Wikileaks unveils and what it doesn't. If you were being sympathetic to the people heading Wikileaks, why do you think they suggested this about Swartz? Your bigger point about trust connects to the absolutely enormous STS literature on that topic: why do we trust technologies, scientists, experts, corporations, information, media, government, etc.? Of course, the answer is that often we don't, but when we do, why do we? (I have written an article dealing with trust and energy statistics: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/ghat/2012/00000028/00000002/art00002) These issues only seem more complicated when we are thinking about the Internet.
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