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Now there's IndoLeaks, BrusselsLeaks and BalkanLeaks
By Zubaidah Nazeer, Indonesia Correspondent
JAKARTA: As whistleblowing website WikiLeaks continues to come under intense fire for its dump of secret United States diplomatic cables, it has already spawned a number of copycats.
In recent weeks, several websites were launched claiming to reveal corporate backroom deals, governments' secret plans and other information that its owners would have wanted to keep out of the public eye.
It started with IndoLeaks.org, an Indonesian-focused site that has already published documents from the country's Suharto administration. Since going online last week, it has released 41 documents which have drawn nearly one million downloads.
The same week saw the launch of BrusselsLeaks, set up by former European Union (EU) officials and journalists to release internal information about the backroom dealings and secrets of the EU.
Hot on their heels came BalkanLeaks, which Bulgarian newspaper The Sofia Echo said was set up by a Bulgarian expatriate in Paris who had declared that 'the Balkans are not keeping secrets any more'.
A fourth may join their ranks soon - OpenLeaks.org, set up by a former staff member of WikiLeaks, Mr Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The German, who left WikiLeaks in September to work on his own project, told Der Spiegel newspaper that 'there must be a thousand WikiLeaks'.
Documenting the four copycats in a blog this week, Forbes writer Andy Greenberg noted that WikiLeaks could ultimately have an even larger impact than the leaks it has published.
'It may have planted the seeds for an entire new generation of secret-spilling sites,' he wrote.
But the biggest challenge for these copycats, he said, is establishing a reputation as WikiLeaks has done.
'The challenge for any WikiLeak-alike site, especially those without a known figure like Domscheit-Berg, will be establishing credibility,' wrote Mr Greenberg.
That could boil down to public perception of who they actually are, the security of their websites, and their actual content. Some of the sites, he said, appear to use anonymous submission systems, just like what WikiLeaks used to do until October, and have software to protect the identities of those contributing the leaks.
BrusselsLeaks showed it was aware of trust issues when it said in a post on Sunday: 'How do you know we are not a lobbyist or political group? We're not and in the coming months that should become plainly obvious... The people we know trust us personally, and if the website fails then so be it, we can carry on.'
IndoLeaks has already drawn fire over its contents. Some analysts dismissed it for rehashing information that they say is readily available.
Historian Asvi Warman Adam noted that 'leaked' autopsy reports on four generals murdered in the 1965 coup against then President Sukarno had already been mentioned in a book published in 1987.
Agreeing, a senior Indonesian diplomat said IndoLeaks' founders do not appear to have access to high-level sources, so the information leaked was neither confidential nor sensitive. Even the Indonesian government has maintained it is not bothered by the website's releases.
Their scepticism appears to mirror that of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange himself about copycats.
'He told me that he wouldn't recommend any other sites following WikiLeaks' model,' wrote Forbes' Mr Greenberg.
Mr Jusuf Wanandi, a senior fellow at Indonesia's Centre for Strategic and International Studies, also told The Straits Times that IndoLeaks was hardly likely to make a dent in Indonesian politics.
'We (Indonesia) are so open already,' he said. 'What else is there to reveal?'
By Zubaidah Nazeer, Indonesia Correspondent
JAKARTA: As whistleblowing website WikiLeaks continues to come under intense fire for its dump of secret United States diplomatic cables, it has already spawned a number of copycats.
In recent weeks, several websites were launched claiming to reveal corporate backroom deals, governments' secret plans and other information that its owners would have wanted to keep out of the public eye.
It started with IndoLeaks.org, an Indonesian-focused site that has already published documents from the country's Suharto administration. Since going online last week, it has released 41 documents which have drawn nearly one million downloads.
The same week saw the launch of BrusselsLeaks, set up by former European Union (EU) officials and journalists to release internal information about the backroom dealings and secrets of the EU.
Hot on their heels came BalkanLeaks, which Bulgarian newspaper The Sofia Echo said was set up by a Bulgarian expatriate in Paris who had declared that 'the Balkans are not keeping secrets any more'.
A fourth may join their ranks soon - OpenLeaks.org, set up by a former staff member of WikiLeaks, Mr Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The German, who left WikiLeaks in September to work on his own project, told Der Spiegel newspaper that 'there must be a thousand WikiLeaks'.
Documenting the four copycats in a blog this week, Forbes writer Andy Greenberg noted that WikiLeaks could ultimately have an even larger impact than the leaks it has published.
'It may have planted the seeds for an entire new generation of secret-spilling sites,' he wrote.
But the biggest challenge for these copycats, he said, is establishing a reputation as WikiLeaks has done.
'The challenge for any WikiLeak-alike site, especially those without a known figure like Domscheit-Berg, will be establishing credibility,' wrote Mr Greenberg.
That could boil down to public perception of who they actually are, the security of their websites, and their actual content. Some of the sites, he said, appear to use anonymous submission systems, just like what WikiLeaks used to do until October, and have software to protect the identities of those contributing the leaks.
BrusselsLeaks showed it was aware of trust issues when it said in a post on Sunday: 'How do you know we are not a lobbyist or political group? We're not and in the coming months that should become plainly obvious... The people we know trust us personally, and if the website fails then so be it, we can carry on.'
IndoLeaks has already drawn fire over its contents. Some analysts dismissed it for rehashing information that they say is readily available.
Historian Asvi Warman Adam noted that 'leaked' autopsy reports on four generals murdered in the 1965 coup against then President Sukarno had already been mentioned in a book published in 1987.
Agreeing, a senior Indonesian diplomat said IndoLeaks' founders do not appear to have access to high-level sources, so the information leaked was neither confidential nor sensitive. Even the Indonesian government has maintained it is not bothered by the website's releases.
Their scepticism appears to mirror that of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange himself about copycats.
'He told me that he wouldn't recommend any other sites following WikiLeaks' model,' wrote Forbes' Mr Greenberg.
Mr Jusuf Wanandi, a senior fellow at Indonesia's Centre for Strategic and International Studies, also told The Straits Times that IndoLeaks was hardly likely to make a dent in Indonesian politics.
'We (Indonesia) are so open already,' he said. 'What else is there to reveal?'
