The Problem With Wikileaks

Over the last one month, we've been inundated by wikileaks with all these 'top-secret' diplomatic cable communication records .. Of-course, some good aspects have come out like the true-pictures of prisoner abuse & related stories..But I've to say, bulk of this leaks is practically useless and to a great extent, undesirable.. I came across this link http://www.ndtv.com/article/wikileaks%20%20revelations/wikileaks-cables-singapore-called-india-stupid-japan-a-big-fat-loser-72197   today... The headline screams  'Singapore called India stupid , Japan a big fat loser'... Now if you read through the story, you would see that its some diplomat who has expressed this opinion.. Its not the stance or official position of Singapore..its just an arbitrary opinion of a diplomat.. Now the media highlights it with a catchy tagline to get reader-base.. An average news reader will be easily enraged by these kind of stories if he happens to be on the receiving side.. I'd say, a large proportion of Indians who read that news would have felt some level of animosity to Singapore..  This is precisely the problem with wikileaks.. By revealing these kind of communication between two officials, they are just fueling animosity..

Some of the other crap that was released by them - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/29/wikileaks_shocker/  Most of these arbit stories are comments / faxes by some diplomat to their superiors or colleagues.. Such comments between two individuals should never be escalated to such an extent that it creates unnecessary animosity .

During my time @ IIMK, we maintained a google group for Students' Council to discuss about various things happening in institute.. There are lot of crass comments like this in that GG for/against many people ..However, those remained in the group and was never allowed to become the official word of Council.. If that was thrown open to public, a lot of people would have felt strongly against us.. I tend to compare the feeling/irritation of people who are at the receiving end of wikileaks to what we would have felt if that Google Group was ever made public :)