With the Swedish elections coming up, the Pirate Party is making news.\u00a0 International news.<\/p>\n
The Pirate Party was founded in Sweden in 2006.\u00a0 Since then, it has made news by working to overhaul copyright laws while also calling for government transparency.\u00a0 The party has come so far as to have two representative elected to the European Parliament.\u00a0 It continues to grow and has support from many young Swedes.\u00a0 The election of the Pirate Party to the European Parliament briefly made international news.\u00a0 This past weekend, the Pirate Party has once again made international news.\u00a0 With a little help.<\/p>\n
As mentioned, the Pirate Party is working towards more government transparency.\u00a0 So it should come as little surprise then that an organization like WikiLeaks would be interesting to them.<\/p>\n
WikiLeaks, of course, has been dominating the headlines lately after having released thousands of classified documents about the US war effort in Afghanistan.\u00a0 The organization was criticized for being a bit too transparent.\u00a0 Names of Afghans lending assistance to coalition forces were left in the documents.<\/p>\n
And so, this past weekend, the Pirate Party agreed with WikiLeaks to host the website on servers in Stockholm.\u00a0 The hope is that by forming an agreement with a political party, WikiLeaks will be better protected from threats.\u00a0 Whether those threats are lawsuits, hackers, or even government raids.<\/p>\n
Many see organizations like these as pioneers in the digital freedom.\u00a0 But for an organization like WikiLeaks, I wonder if making agreements with political parties actually hurts their future credibility.\u00a0 Suddenly, possible conflicts of interests arise.\u00a0 Suddenly, their transparency comes into question.<\/p>\n
At the same time, they have partnered with a political party that champions government transparency.\u00a0 But where does that transparency end?\u00a0 Clearly, the backlash to the release of so many names in the Afghan papers has made the organization think twice.\u00a0 They have been delayed with releasing a second round of classified papers as they censor them.<\/p>\n
Regardless of the outcome, the agreement has thrust the Pirate Party back into the news.\u00a0 And just in time for the elections.\u00a0 Fortuitous timing, but will it result in stronger election results for the party?<\/p>\n
For more on the agreement, and some practice with your Swedish, check out the article at svd.se titled: Piratpartiet samarbetar med Wikileaks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the Swedish elections coming up, the Pirate Party is making news.\u00a0 International news. The Pirate Party was founded in Sweden in 2006.\u00a0 Since then, it has made news by working to overhaul copyright laws while also calling for government transparency.\u00a0 The party has come so far as to have two representative elected to the…<\/p>\n