Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, will soon face competition from a rival platform called Openleaks. It has been reported that Wikileaks defectors, including Assange’s right-hand man Daniel Schmitt, are planning to launch Openleaks in the coming weeks. The new site is said to be more transparent than Wikileaks.
Key Takeaways
- Wikileaks defectors are planning to launch a rival platform called Openleaks
- Openleaks is said to be more transparent than Wikileaks
- The new platform will act as a middleman between those who want to obtain leaked material and whistleblowers, rather than hosting the documents directly
Wikileaks is a non-profit international organization known for publishing secret, private, and classified media from various anonymous news sources and news leaks. Launched in 2006, it has amassed a database of over 1.3 million documents. The director of Wikileaks is Australian internet activist Julian Assange.
Openleaks, planned to launch in December 2010 by former German representative of Wikileaks Daniel Berg, aims to be a service provider for parties who want to accept material from anonymous sources. Berg claims that Openleaks will be more transparent than Wikileaks, as the organization has not been open enough in recent months and has lost its open-source promise. Openleaks is planned to start in early 2011.
The main difference between Wikileaks and Openleaks is that Openleaks will not host leaked documents directly, but will act as a middleman between those who want to obtain leaked material and whistleblowers. While the goals of both sites are similar, Openleaks will allow whistleblowers to leak sensitive information without directly publishing the documents.
