The Spatial Bonds of WikiLeaks

Abstract

This article analyses control of the Internet from a spatial perspective, on the intersection of social and political geography, and law. Inspired by the story of WikiLeaks and its leader Julian Assange, who is presently confined in a room of a diplomatic mission, this article examines such control through a spatial perspective, using the example of the paradoxical coexistence of whistle-blowing, aided by modern technology, and efforts to control the circulation of information on the Internet. Modern states can and do exercise their sovereignty normally upon a rather precisely delimited portion of land, while a variety of actions performed on the Internet remain rather hard to be associated with a single location on Earth. We use here a variety of spatial concepts, but in particular territory (and jurisdiction) and place as parameters for understanding the link between sovereignty (and, more precisely, control), resistance, and the Internet. This article demonstrates the importance of these spatial concepts for the policy and practice of Internet governance.