Paris: National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and transparency website WikiLeaks are clashing over how best to handle the publication of sensitive data, a spat played out over Twitter.
WikiLeaks has come under increasing criticism over what it publishes, particularly following the release of what the website advertised as emails from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party. When a large numbers of emails turned out to be little more than messages from ordinary citizens, critics said WikiLeaks should have exercised better discretion to protect innocent people's privacy.
Snowden praised WikiLeaks on Friday but said their “hostility to even modest curation is a mistake.”
“Democratising information has never been more vital, and WikiLeaks has helped,” he tweeted. “But their hostility to even modest curation is a mistake.” WikiLeaks fired back , accusing Snowden of “opportunism.”
Such a public split is unusual. WikiLeaks played a key role in getting Snowden asylum in Russia in 2013.
The Washington Post has said the clash highlights a major split between how WikiLeaks and Snowden have handled the data that they helped make public. Snowden worked with news organisations to expose NSA surveillance programs. He chose to withhold some documents that government officials said would compromise national security.
On the other hand, WikiLeaks' has a more radical approach towards disclosure of data. It often posts massive, searchable caches online with few apparent efforts to remove sensitive personal information, the Post said.
