Julian Assange
Radical transparency
Cryptography against state secrecy.
Reformist Crypto-AnarchistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Crypto-Anarchist hall →- Role
- Publisher & cypherpunk
- Era
- b. 1971
- Region
- Australia
- Social band
- Reformist
- Placement
- +64 · −90 · +45
§ Where Julian Assange stands
3 axesAssange's economics are secondary to his politics of information, but they lean toward markets. In a 2010 interview with Forbes he said he had mixed feelings about capitalism but loved markets, and argued that leaks make it easier to run an honest business and harder to run a corrupt one. His cypherpunk roots favour open exchange over redistribution or state ownership.
Assange's core project is an attack on state secrecy. His 2006 essay Conspiracy as Governance described unaccountable governments as conspiracies that depend on concealment and argued that leaks would make secret communication costly enough to cripple them. WikiLeaks put that theory into practice, publishing classified US war logs and diplomatic cables in 2010 on the principle that the public, not the state, should control information.
Socially Assange is a provocative anti-authoritarian whose causes are largely those of the anti-war left, from the Collateral Murder video of a 2007 Baghdad helicopter attack, released in April 2010, to press freedom and privacy. His WikiLeaks Party stood for the Australian Senate in 2013 on transparency and civil liberties, though WikiLeaks' role in the 2016 US election divided former supporters.
How close are you to Julian Assange?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
LivingJulian Assange (born 1971) is an Australian publisher and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. Born in Townsville, Queensland, he was a teenage hacker in Melbourne under the name Mendax, pleaded guilty to hacking offences in 1996 and took part in the cypherpunks mailing list, where cryptography was championed as a tool against state power. Through WikiLeaks he published leaked documents on a vast scale, culminating in 2010 with US military logs from Afghanistan and Iraq and a quarter of a million American diplomatic cables.
Admirers see Assange as a pioneer of radical transparency who exposed civilian deaths and official deception; critics say his releases endangered informants, and US investigators concluded that the Democratic Party emails WikiLeaks published in 2016 had been stolen by Russian military intelligence. Resisting extradition to Sweden over allegations he denied and which were later dropped, he sheltered in Ecuador's London embassy from 2012 to 2019. After five years in Belmarsh prison fighting US extradition under the Espionage Act, he pleaded guilty to a single count in 2024 and returned to Australia.
Notable for
- 01Founded WikiLeaks
- 02Cypherpunk movement
- 03Mass-disclosure publishing
Key works & moments
- 1996Pleads guilty in Melbourne to hacking offences committed as the teenage hacker Mendax.
- 2006Founds WikiLeaks and writes the essay Conspiracy as Governance.
- 2010WikiLeaks releases the Collateral Murder video, Afghan and Iraq war logs, and US diplomatic cables.
- 2012Takes refuge in Ecuador's London embassy and is granted political asylum.
- 2019Arrested after Ecuador withdraws asylum; the US charges him under the Espionage Act.
- 2024Pleads guilty to one Espionage Act count under a plea deal and returns to Australia.
§ Minds closest to Julian Assange
All minds →
§ Also in the Crypto-Anarchist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Julian Assange's political ideology?
Julian Assange is a cypherpunk and radical transparency activist whose politics centre on exposing state power: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reformist Crypto-Anarchist. Economically he leans to the market side (+64), professing a love of markets while treating economics as secondary. On governance he is strongly anti-authoritarian (−90), using leaks and cryptography against official secrecy, and socially he is moderately progressive (+45), with anti-war and civil-liberties causes at the heart of WikiLeaks.
Is Julian Assange left-wing or right-wing?
Neither consistently; he is best described as a libertarian anti-authoritarian. His early supporters were mostly on the anti-war left, drawn by WikiLeaks' exposure of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, while his cypherpunk roots and professed love of markets have libertarian overtones. After WikiLeaks published Democratic Party emails during the 2016 US election, many on the left turned against him and some on the right embraced him, and his imprisonment later drew support from press-freedom groups across the spectrum.
Is Julian Assange a journalist?
It is disputed, and the answer has legal weight. Supporters, including many press-freedom organisations, argue that WikiLeaks did what newspapers do, obtaining and publishing true information in the public interest, and that prosecuting him under the Espionage Act threatened all journalists. US prosecutors argued that he was not a journalist but had conspired with Chelsea Manning to obtain classified material. His 2024 plea deal ended the case without a court ruling on whether such publishing is protected.
Which minds are closest to Julian Assange?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Julian Assange are Eric Hughes (98% alike), Dagny Taggart (96% alike) and Wendy McElroy (96% alike). The furthest is Gregor Strasser (0% alike).