WikiLeaks: A Case Study on Journalism and Encryption : Tor | Torhoo darknet markets
August 26, 2024
Earlier this year I was asked to join the Intercept Brasil as a contributor to write about the intersection of technology and human rights. Like dozens of other news sites around the world, Intercept Brasil uses Tor-powered tools and other encrypted services for their journalistic work. This is a summary of an article that was originally published under the headline Como a criptografia e a segurança de dados salvaram Julian Assange e o Wikileaks (How encryption and data security saved Julian Assange and Wikileaks), in which I reflect on the role of encryption and some of Tor's contributions to modern investigative journalism.
Julian Assange is finally free in his homeland of Australia. The journalist, who spent years under persecution for exposing war crimes committed by the United States, shaped investigative journalism by utilizing encrypted technologies to safeguard sources, their information--and journalism itself.
Drawing from his experience as a member of the hacker community, Assange recognized that encryption could offer a shield for investigative journalists to protect them and their sources from potential retribution.
And he leveraged encrypted technologies like Tor and Tails for his own work with Wikileaks. In fact, to this day, Tor and Tails are prominently featured technologies on the Wikileaks website.
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