[ForrestN]

Julian Assange, love him or hate him, is certainly a hacker, and Wikileaks is potentially, depending on what turns out to be true, one of the most important technology stories this decade. It is a story about the Internet being told on the Internet, and has major implications for the future of the Internet.

The fact that a technology story is also political, also has global ramifications, matters in other realms and daily life, makes it more important as a technology story.

[philwelch]

Quoth the guidelines:

"Off-topic: Most stories about politics, or crime...unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. ... If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."

This is indeed off-topic.

[ForrestN]

The video is part of an ongoing story: the wide-ranging political and diplomatic implications of decentralized leaks that can't be kept from the public once they're out. This story is certainly evidence of an entirely new, technology-centric phenomenon that I personally find highly interesting.

[philwelch]

Wikileaks is interesting. Julian Assange's personal affairs are not.

[ForrestN]

This is not his personal affairs; this is a public speech he's giving about Wikileaks, and an alleged international conspiracy to destroy the organization. Maybe it's trumped up, I'm agnostic on that point. But it's highly contentious whether or not this is about Assange's personal affairs, or if his personal affairs are being used as a weapon against Wikileaks.

[philwelch]

Well, yours is the first comment I've seen in this thread that actually discusses the speech or Wikileaks, rather than rehashing that tired old argument about whether the Swedish actually want to try Assange for rape or whether it's some kind of CIA conspiracy.

[ForrestN]

OK— last post on this. If you think it's a CIA conspiracy trying to undermine Wikileaks, this rape charge is part of that story. Obviously that's in question, which is why it's not possible to think of this as obviously inappropriate.