Wikileads

Most targets of Wikileaked documents respond defensively when they find out about the sensitive, private material posted about them online.

The Church of Scientology and the Mormon Church sent cease-and-desist letters when Wikileaks published their secret theological documents, and a U.K. spokeswoman emailed Wikileaks to request that these early drawings of the atomic bomb be taken down.

When Wikileaks posted photos of the gory aftermath of the violent protests in Tibet, the Chinese government allegedly bombarded the site with so much fake traffic that it crashed.

Rather than address the problems brought to the surface by Wikileaked documents, accused parties have fought to have the documents removed from the public eye.

But one recent leak was different. One recent leak brought about a bit of change.

When the British public found out that professors at Kingston University had told students their degrees would be shit unless they lied on a national survey, hundreds of people contacted the BBC with similar stories. Fraud on the National Student Survey is widespread, the respondents said. Professors often encourage students to lie. The survey’s results could not be trusted.

This time, the government listened. In response to public outcry against fraud on the National Student Survey, the British government promised to issue stricter guidelines on how universities should administer the survey.

So now Wikileaks has influenced U.K. policy.

Why has this leak brought about change while others have not yet done so? A few reasons stand out:

1. People cared about the problem. Many British university students had had similar experiences, and like the person who sent the audio recording to Wikileaks, these other students believed they had been wronged.
2. The leaked material did not marginalize national security, question the British government’s motives, or threaten the British government’s power. It was a fairly straightforward allegation of fraud and misuse of power made in a country that sees fraud and misuse of power (at least by professors) as unacceptable.
3. Protesting, in this case, was unlikely to endanger the protesters. The British government was unlikely to punish the angry masses for speaking out against professors who threaten students.

In sum, the straightforward nature of the problem made it easier to solve.

But problems that are more entrenched and more controversial will be much more difficult to fight. Corruption in Kenya, human-rights abuses in China, military secrecy in the United States — these will be longer, harder battles.