ABSTRACT
The cypherpunk movement has a unifying slogan: privacy for the weak, transparency for the powerful. This chapter explores the cypherpunks’ arguments in defense of transparency for the powerful. After presenting a genealogy of cypherpunk platforms—including Timothy May’s BlackNet, Jim Bell’s Assassination Politics, Ross Ulbricht’s Silk Road, and John Young’s Cryptome—it discusses the two central function of Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks. First, it explains the cybernetic function of WikiLeaks as provoking leaks from conspiratorial governments and corporations. Second, it explains WikiLeaks’ practice of scientific journalism, which requires journalists to publish the primary sources that inform their reporting.
