Mr. Assange should step down from Wikileaks

Dear Reader,

In the past, diablog has supported Wikileaks. We have a label Wikileaks, where you can find all our posts about it. And we have donated to Wikileaks.

In case you need a short reminder why, please read So why is Wikileaks a good thing again?

If you are following Wikileaks, visiting the website, then you know, that Wikileaks currently is using annoying, stupid tactics to raise money and increase support.
For less tech-savvy visitors there is no way to access some of the supposedly free information.

This "fund- and support-raising" campaign received plenty of criticism, even from loyal supporters over the last couple of days.

Now Mr. Assange has responded.

And in my humble opinion this response shows, he should step down. If Mr. Assange values Wikileaks and puts the idea above his ego, it is time to go.

Mr. Assange's whole statement is of at least questionable quality. There is a lot of what I call psycho-babbling.

Yet the most disturbing sentence regarding the campaign is the following:

"We know it is annoying. It is meant to be annoying."

A leader of any enterprise, who thinks it is a good idea to annoy supporters, customers or donors, has to step aside. Unless s/he is running an S+M business, maybe.

Wikileaks says:

"Our goal is to bring important news and information to the public."

It does not say, to the tech-savvy, or the paying public, or to supporters, or to ad-consuming masochists. It says "public".
 
When Mr. Assange got into legal trouble, he presented a new spokesperson for Wikileaks, Kristinn Hrafnsson.
Sadly, Mr. Hrafnsson has been less than vocal. His twitter account khrafnsson for example is dead.

As long as Mr. Assange is running matters at Wikileaks, I will pause supporting it. As soon as Mr. Hrafnsson, or another person, takes over, I will resume my support.

It is time for Mr. Hrafnsson to step up and take charge.


Stay tuned,
Engine Room