WikiLeaks, the disclosure organization led by Julian Assange, said in a series of tweets on Friday that it is considering building a digital database of verified
WikiLeaks said it does not plan to dox users' home addresses and only intends to share the relationships between verified users based on "proximity graphs." However, critics of the group's idea expressed outrage and concern that such a tool would violate the safety and privacy of users and their families.
"We are thinking of making an online database with all 'verified' twitter accounts & their family/job/financial/housing relationships," the WikiLeaks Task Force said in a tweet, which it deleted hours later. "The idea is to look at the network of *relationships* that influence -- not to publish addresses," the organization said in a separate tweet. The WikiLeaks account cited Wikipedia, Google, LinkedIn and Facebook as examples of creators of similar relationship graphs.
WikiLeaks said the purpose of such a database would be to inform its artificial intelligence software. The group also asked Twitter users for "other suggestions" as to how it might use the information.
“Posting another person’s private and confidential information is a violation of the Twitter Rules," a Twitter spokesperson said in an email. WikiLeaks did not respond to a request for comment.
Twitter verifies the accounts of thousands of users such as politicians, journalists, activists and nonprofit organizations, whose feeds it considers to be of public interest, labeling those accounts with blue check marks. The system was created in part to reduce the number of fake accounts impersonating celebrity users. Twitter's policies say the company does not allow the use of Twitter data for "surveillance purposes." The type of project WikiLeaks is proposing would most likely violate Twitter's terms of service.
A range of Twitter users spoke out against WikiLeak's broad proposal, raising concern such a database could be used as a tool for harassment or violence:
HEADS UP
Official Wikileaks support announces plans for massive DOXXING OPERATION aimed at verified @Twitter users.
cc: @jack@Supporthttps://t.co/k0Nrxc2yAA
'Wikileaks Taskforce' completes transformation from pile-on troll army to genuinely sinister 'we know where you live' list-maker. https://t.co/jrkdEOL6a3
— Tim Maughan (@timmaughan) January 6, 2017
@WLTaskForce I think this plan is creepy, I think you're creepy and I hope someone breaks into your house and rearranges your sofa cushions.
— Ethan Lawrence (@EthanDLawrence) January 6, 2017
WikiLeaks is also under scrutiny for other reasons. Earlier this week, U.S. intelligence officials said they had information connecting the disclosure organization to Russian programmers suspected of hacking into the Democratic National Committee's emails.
