Countersurveillance Between Criminalization and the Possibility of a New Counterpower: the Case of Julian Assange and Wikileaks

Abstract Relational surveillance makes the relationship between the surveilled and the surveillant increasingly ambiguous. By navigating the web, those who are subject to surveillance can also gather information about crimes of the powerful, thereby increasing public awareness of abuses committed by actors holding economic or political power. Julian Assange and WikiLeaks used their technological expertise to expose torture, secret prisons, and massacres, and were subsequently criminalized by the US government. Chelsea Manning was arrested and convicted, while Assange faced a 14-year legal ordeal that ended only in June 2024. The case of Julian Assange demonstrates that the Internet is a field of political struggle: although those in power seek to control digital spaces, restrict their use, and criminalize alternative practices, an open and unrestricted Internet can also serve to scrutinize power, challenge dominant narratives, and strengthen democratic accountability.