10,008 redditors searching for Julian for just over a month
I want you to cast your mind back to October 16th 2016. That was when most of us probably heard the news surface that Julian Assange (A whistleblower who is currently seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London) had his internet cut by Embassy Officials. The reasoning behind this was, according to the Embassy, to prevent Julian from interfering with the US election, whilst controversial this was understandable. Many of Assange's followers expected his internet to be restored after the US Election, by then it would be too late for any real damage to be made.
However, Assange's internet has not been restored. There has been no sign that Julian Assange is even alive since then. /rWhereIsAssange was set up on October 22nd with the objective of finding out where Assange is. Their goal is "/r/WhereIsAssange is asking for an unedited video proof of life, preferably with a newspaper showing the current date" They simply aim to find out where Julian Assange is.
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1. can you give a brief rundown of the events of the 17th of October regarding leaks and Assange losing internet?
iamDanger_us: The tl;dr is this: The WikiLeaks twitter made several cryptic "pre-commitment" tweets several hours before announcing Julian Assange's internet had been cut. Since then, we have received no definitive proof of life, just statements from people saying things like, "I've seen him, he's fine," a call-in to an obscure South America open source conference where Julian didn't seem to always be responding to the person asking questions, and a video interview with John Pilger that had no establishing shot of both of them in frame and is edited at numerous points.
/r/whereisassange is asking for an unedited video proof of life, preferably with a newspaper showing the current date, and a signed PGP statement using the Wikileaks Editorial Board public key that has been published since 4/2015 (matching the PGP fingerprint listed on the WikiLeaks twitter bio).
2. Is it normal for Julian to go unseen by public for this long?
iamDanger_us: There have been gaps in his appearances in the past, but the timing of it with his internet being shut off, especially right before an important US election, is what has many of us worried. The fact that his internet was supposed to be restored after the election--almost two weeks ago now--is causing more people to start realizing something may be amiss.
3. Should we be worried at his disappearance? What does it mean for us?
iamDanger_us:I am only speaking for myself when I say this, but we should be worried for a number of reasons. If something happened to Assange, it was the result of the US and UK conspiring to have him removed. Ecuador may be an accomplice to this, or a victim, but either would have grave implications for diplomatic sovereignty and asylum seekers around the world. With regards to WikiLeaks specifically, if the organization is compromised it could endanger whistleblowers who try to leak information in the future.
4. What is the JTRIG?
iamDanger_us:This is going to sound kind of strange to most folks, but I ask you to read the following paragraph with an open mind. I just recently learned of JTRIG myself. You can find out more here and also read an informative post from one of our users. Put simply, things that sound like a conspiracy theory ("There are paid agitators who infiltrate online communities to spread discord and disinfo.") exist and have been documented. That this happens is not in question, only the extent to which it occurs.
5. What is all this about alleged subreddits such as /r/The_Donald and /r/Wikileaks 'censoring' conversation?
iamDanger_us:Many users have had posts and comments removed in various subreddits. We are told that it is "concern trolling". We are definitely concerned, but we are not trolls.
6. With regard to "new moderators infiltrating subreddits" what are your 2 new moderators on the sub for?
iamDanger_us: One is to allow public visibility into mod logs. The other only has CSS/design access. I will be adding an additional mod today, a person I trust and have worked with for weeks on this, due to the size and incredible recent growth of the sub. I will not hesitate to remove any mod that abuses his or her authority. The public mod logs also show all moderator actions.
7. Any final message to reddit? Is there a way that they can help?
iamDanger_us: Let WikiLeaks know that these questions will not go away until adequate proof of life is offered. Tweet them (we are using the hashtags #WhereIsAssange and #WhereIsJulian), contact the media and ask them to write about it, if you are in the UK show up at the Ecuador embassy (stay safe though, UK laws are no joke). Keep up the pressure. If something has indeed happened to Julian, we want the world to know.
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