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WikiLeaks Wants to Tear Down the Two-Party System

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Created: 04 October, 2016
Updated: 17 October, 2022
2 min read

In celebration of WikiLeaks' 10th anniversary Tuesday, the website's founder, Julian Assange, held a press conference via video link in Berlin to announce that the website will be leaking information every week for the next 10 weeks, including "significant" secret information about the presidential election ahead of November 8.

The WikiLeaks domain name was registered on October 4, 2006. Since then, the website has published 10 million documents, including thousands of documents and cables on U.S. officials and military operations. U.S. officials would like Assange extradited to the U.S. for these leaks, but he has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012.

"A decade ago, we knew a lot less about the world's leaders and institutions," says a video shown before the press conference. "We knew only what they wanted us to know." Then came Wikileaks, the video adds.

Assange and WikiLeaks have already made waves in the 2016 presidential election.

In July, ahead of the Democratic National Convention, WikiLeaks released internal DNC emails that showed bias toward Hillary Clinton, even suggesting that some Democratic officials wanted to do everything they could to ensure Clinton won the party's nomination. Many Sanders supporters, who had long cried foul, were at least partly vindicated in their accusations that the fix was in from the start. It also highlighted just how much control two private political organizations have over the election process.

READ MORE: The Anti-Sanders Emails That Led Wasserman Schultz to Resign as DNC Chair

In the aftermath of the leak, then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down from her position. Assange promised to leak more information about the DNC and Clinton ahead of the November election, leading the media to run with speculation that he was intentionally trying to hurt the Democratic nominee to help Trump. However, Assange dismissed these reports, indicating that he has no allegiance to either major party candidate.

"I feel sorry for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They are two people that are tormented by their ambitions," he said.

Assange did not offer specifics on the timing or scope of the leaks. Information published on WikiLeaks over the next 10 weeks will also include secrets on military operations, arms trading, and Google.

"We are going to need an army to defend us from the pressure that is already starting to arise," Assange said during the press conference.

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Photo Credit: haak78 / Shutterstock.com

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