Spawn of WikiLeaks

In an interview last month with Forbes magazine, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, admitted that he hoped his website would inspire others — not least, to relieve him of some of the burden of serving as the conduit for the world’s whistleblowers. “The supply of leaks is very large,” said Assange. “It’s helpful for us to have more people in this industry. It’s protective to us.”

Since then, a number of new websites have sprung up, answering Assange’s call. Most borrow WikiLeaks’ modus operandi — and a derivation of its name — but they accept a slightly more humble mandate, requesting documents from only a specific part of the world. Most of them also are seeming to try to learn from Assange’s public relations mistakes, styling their sites as stringently “objective,” whatever that means.

To be fair, not all of these sites have a great deal of content thus far, but it will definitely be worth keeping an eye on these organizations in the months, and years ahead. The United States government may have withstood WikiLeaks’ best shot (and vice versa), but other governments around the world may not be as robust.

Read more.