Why PornWikiLeaks is not like WikiLeaks

Activist, writer and public speaker maymay quotes me in a piece titled Power, Privacy, and Privilege: Why PornWikiLeaks is not like WikiLeaks, which provides a detailed analysis on the important differences between WikiLeaks and the so-called PornWikiLeaks.

Since PornWikileaks targets the marginalized while Wikileaks targets the powerful, claims that the two organizations’s ends are the same are plainly false. But of course, the other salient difference is the level of scale the two organizations target; individuals versus organizations—their means are different, too. As Australian political columnist Kate Ausburn said of the distinction between personal privacy and organizational secrecy:

Failing to recognise the difference between personal privacy versus government secrecy is like comparing Wikileaks to PerezHilton.com. Do we have a right to know what goes on in the diplomat’s bedroom? No. But when it comes to the government boardroom, that’s a different story.

Read the full post here, and while you’re at it, be sure to take a look around, it is an interesting space. Here’s a little more on maymay:

As a social justice technologist, maymay rallies hackers, Makers, DIY enthusiasts, environmentalists and myriad other groups to support sex-positive feminism. As a sexual freedom activist, maymay works to connect enclaves of the sex-positive movement with one another through the power of the Internet and social networking.

Sound good? Here is an anti-censorship seminar maymay gave recently at Atlanta Poly Weekend:

Featured image by val.pearl.