Leaking by the Bucketload: The Nature of Database Leaks

Abstract:     
The British expense account scandal, the revelations by Wikileaks, and the Palestine papers are all database leaks. Such leaks were not impossible before the revolution in information and communication technology, but they have become much simpler. Through global communication networks everybody can now leak on an industrial scale. The question addressed in this paper is: How to understand and regulate such database leaks? The romantic notion that they will empower democratic publics is problematic. Databases, typically, are not easily intelligible. At best they provide the raw data for an understanding of an institutional culture or attitude. Experts and specialists remain essential intermediaries for the interpretation of the raw data. Moreover, organizations like WikiLeaks no longer need to settle in a single jurisdiction. Database leaks are beyond the reach of national regulation. We argue that the role of specialists is ineluctable and that some form of republican governance is the best way to impose standards on database leaking.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 36

Keywords: WikiLeaks, Database, Governance, Globalization, Press, Journalism, Internet, Freedom of Expression, Republicanism

working papers series