Whenever a new mode of distributing information becomes common, the powerful react by resisting erosion of their control over information. After the printing press was invented in the West, monarchs and popes all sought to use licensing, or absolute bans, to dam up the increased flow of information. Similarly, the apartheid state in South Africa banned television out of fear that its images would arouse disaffection.
The furor surrounding WikiLeaks is the newest example of how changes in information technology challenge the use of secrecy by authority. Whereas in 1969 Daniel Ellsberg needed six weeks to sift through and photocopy the 7,000 pages that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, today, the Internet allows individuals to distribute massive amounts of information almost instantly. But in the long run, governments will no more be able to prevent the erosion of their control of information by the Internet than monarchs and popes could collar the printing press. The true danger of the WikiLeaks furor is that they will try.
