Why Wikileaks a CSR Issue

Though Wikileaks is not a for profit corporation, nonprofits are (at least in the US) still corporate entities. As such, Wikileaks’ (and all nonprofit corporations) are still subject to corporate social responsibility scrutiny. That’s right; CSRcounts for nonprofit corporations too. It’s a fascinating, unusual problem for CSR to analyze the social impact of corporate behavior NOT motivated by profit. The cost Wikileaks is incurring upon society is not a typical CSR matter, like carbon footprints, employee treatment or community giving programs. Yet Wikileaks still has stakeholders, and those stakeholders’ lives depend on Wikileaks.

Wikileaks’ choice to release mass amounts of varying levels of classified data is doing two things. First, it is releasing information that Americans have a right to know about their government that was covered up as a result of overzealous classification. Classified status is sometimes abused in the US government, and is any easy way to cover up embarrassing information. The default in secretive agencies is to classify, even where inappropriate. FOIA is not always an effective or sufficient tool in regaining access to these classified documents. In this sense, the Democracy is weaker because citizens are not fully informed about what their government is doing with their taxdollars, in their name domestically and abroad. In this sense, Wikileaks is playing a positive social role.

However, Wikileaks is also aware that it is putting lives at risk and does it anyway. This eliminates any gain in Democracy that results from the leaks. Leader Julian Assange is on record admitting to not having reviewed the thousands of pages Wikileaks prior to unleashing them. Had he, he may have realized that the information his organization is releasing divulges secrets that were formerly protecting peoples’ lives: US agents, US informants, brave foreigners cooperating with the US in a totally uphill defense against terrorism. As such, Assange has essentially served as an accessory to any murders that result from Wikileaks’ disclosures. Al Qaeda has publicly stated that it is reading Wikileaks’ documents and are attempting to identify the people named in them. The consequences for Wikileaks’ idealistic action may be fatal, may have already been fatal. That goes beyond socially irresponsible to demonstrating a careless disregard for human life.

Wikileaks must censor the documents it releases for personal identifying information. State secrets are not a conspiracy; they exist to protect the lives of the brave participants in the intelligence community, whose lives are already in danger on a daily basis without Mr. Assange pointing terrorist to their homes. Because of the harm Wikileaks is creating, there is no honor in what it is doing. It’s far beyond socially irresponsible. Further, it’s 100% a function of laziness; Wikileaks *could* go through the documents it plans to release, but chooses not to, sloppiness that comes at the expense of peoples’ lives. Americans hate other corporations that put lives at risk- Blackwater (now Xe Services); Halliburton; BP. Wikileaks is no different, and perhaps is worse, since it’s not just negligent; it’s aware of the risk it subjects people to and does it anyway. Just like Walmart, Wikileaks has a net negative effect, and a much more serious one. Clearly Mr. Assange doesn’t know anyone in the intelligence community, or else he may care about these people, who are in part insuring the liberty he uses to betray them.

Original Source: www.justmeans.com/Why-Wikileaks-a-CSR-Issue/39065.html