100 Documents That Changed the World
Page 19
In early 2006, exactly two years after the launch of Facebook, the phenomenally successful social networking service, a 30-year-old digital-age innovator in San Francisco had the idea for a new kind of free social networking and microblogging service. Jack Dorsey and some of his friends (Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass) received financial backing and proceeded to develop the project, which they called Twitter.
Dorsey thought the name seemed especially apt because it signified ‘a short burst of inconsequential information’, like the chirps of birds, and Twitter was envisioned as an online social networking service that would enable its registered users to send and receive short bursts of messages up to 140-characters, called tweets, which would be posted through a website interface. Unregistered users could read but not send tweets.
On March 21, 2006 at 9:50 PM, Dorsey posted his first tweet, which said: ‘just setting up my twttr’, and four months later the site was launched. Twitter quickly caught on, gaining more than 100 million users in 2012. In July 2014 the number had grown to 500 million, of which 271 million were classified as active users. The advertising revenue rapidly made Dorsey a billionaire.
Exceeding Dorsey’s initial expectation, some of the tweets proved to be both useful and even consequential. Millions of sports fans used Twitter to communicate instant news about athletic contests, concerts and other social events. After its use by protesters in Moldova was dubbed the ‘Twitter Revolution’ in 2009, the social networking service was credited as a vital tool for political activists. Tweets and other social media became recognized as an effective source of breaking news, especially during natural emergencies and terror attacks. Twitter was the first to report that a plane had landed in the Hudson River on 15 January 2009, and that a helicopter was hovering above Abbottabad, Pakistan at 1:00 AM on 2 May 2011 (the mission that killed Osama bin Laden). In 2010 NASA astronaut T. J. Creamer became the first person to tweet from outer space, sending messages that were followed by millions of readers. Tweets were used to warn about school shootings and traffic delays.
Twitter also became the Achilles heel of scores of errant politicians and celebrities, whose impulsive postings of inappropriate images and comments resulted in their twittering fall from grace.
But Twitter and other forms of social media are not without their critics. Malcolm Gladwell, for example, has called Twitter ‘a way of following (or being followed by) people you may never have met’, and questioned whether it can ever engender strong motivation. Others deride the simplistic mentality of pronouncements that reduce commentary to 140 characters.
WikiLeaks
(2007)
Prompted by the failure of the mainstream news media to report important, in-depth information to the public, a shadowy shoestring alliance of brazen computer nerds takes matters into their own hands and revolutionizes the nature of investigative journalism in the digital age.
When several major American newspapers published excerpts from leaked defence documents known as the Pentagon Papers, thereby revealing many of the hidden antecedents of the Vietnam War, the boldness and scope of the disclosures seemed immense. But that was before the digital age, before millions of documents could be retrieved, copied and shared almost instantaneously.
Similar in spirit to Daniel Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, top-secret digital documents began to be leaked in 2007. This time the mastermind was not the leaker, but the one who directly disseminated the leaked information. An Australian computer hacker named Julian Assange, working with other renegades, began posting large numbers of leaked classified documents on the Internet, along with companion news stories, through a website conduit called WikiLeaks.
In its first three years of existence, WikiLeaks was responsible for bringing to light some of the world’s biggest stories: it exposed chilling military gun-sight footage from a deadly Baghdad airstrike in which journalists and civilians were murdered by a US Army gunship; shocking details about secret drone strikes in Yemen and elsewhere; prison abuses at Guantánamo Bay; embarrassing reports of the US spying on diplomats overseas; old State Department cables involving Henry Kissinger; and many other revelations, all of which were documented by millions of official reports that had been kept secret. WikiLeaks also prepared major exposés against the Chinese Public Security Bureau, the former president of Kenya, the Premier of Bermuda, Scientology, the Catholic and Mormon Churches, the largest Swiss private bank and Russian companies.
Some of the stories were simultaneously accompanied by major news reports by The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel. The WikiLeaks team reportedly consisted of only five full-time staffers and 800 part-time volunteers, all of whom worked for free. The Europe-based group described itself as ‘an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking.’
Although Assange and his associates refused to identify the sources of their information, one alleged leaker, US Army Private Bradley Manning (now known as Chelsea Manning) was prosecuted and convicted by the US government. In 2013 Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act and other offences. Assange and WikiLeaks, however, have remained at large.
WikiLeaks was both honoured and vilified; the organization and its media partners won several journalistic awards, and its leaders and contributors were pursued and threatened by several governments around the world. Assange was forced to seek sanctuary from prosecution. As of early 2015 he was still fighting extradition.
Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, clutches court papers after fighting extradition and being released on bail in December 2010.
The WikiLeaks homepage explains how it aims to defend freedom of speech in accordance with the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth.’
3D Map of the Universe
(2011)
Plotted on a scale that defies the imagination, the most complete map of outer space documents the known universe in 3D. The 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) probably ranks as the greatest and most complex data map yet devised.
In May of 2011, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced that they had compiled the most complete three-dimensional map of the nearby universe ever created. By employing the principle that near-infrared light penetrates intervening dust better than visible light, astronomers were able to see and scan more of the cosmos than anyone had previously envisioned, capturing 91 per cent of the world’s entire night sky in three near-infrared wavelength bands.
Even with 300 researchers using space-age telescopes, super-computers and other advanced technology, the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) took 10 years of complex and painstaking work to achieve.
Astronomers from the University of Massachusetts utilized twin 1.3-meter-wide super telescopes and auxiliary instruments at two world-class observatories – the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory atop the 2,590-metre-high peak of Mt. Hopkins in Arizona, and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory located on a 2,195-metre-high summit in Chile’s Andes. Their scanning catalogued all detected stars and galaxies, formed an extensive survey of low-mass stars and detected the first ‘brown dwarfs’. But because the survey had compiled only a two-dimensional image, scientists had to work out a way to account for distances.
To do this, the project incorporated knowledge that a galaxy’s light is ‘redshifted’, or stretched to longer wavelengths, by the ongoing expansion of the universe. The farther the galaxy, the greater its redshift, so redshift measurements helped identify galaxy distances.
Researchers then measured each cosmic object’s redshift, which denotes how much its light has been shifted towards the red end of the colour spectrum. This movement happens because of the so-called Doppler Effect, which causes the wavelength of light to be stretched when the light’s source is moving away from us. (This was no easy task a
s it entailed 1.5 million redshifts.)
The 2MRS map shows galaxies and dark matter up to 380 million light-years from Earth. Purple dots are galaxies closest to Earth, red dots are furthest away.
The project gathered a monumental volume of data. Software packages allowed the researchers to observe the sky from a range of dates, print off data based on the observations and (in some versions) control a telescope. The complicated process assembled data from a collection of star catalogues, 3D models and computing platforms. This massive undertaking required a vast databank and scores of analysts working in unison at many locations across the globe. The effort produced innumerable scientific papers, data sets and data visualizations on their cosmic cartography.
2MASS Redshift was not the first or the last 3D map of the universe. But it may be the greatest thus far.
The data can be downloaded from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Snowden’s letter of October 31, 2013 claims that he ‘witnessed systemic violations of law’ by his government that ‘created a moral duty to act.’
Edward Snowden Files
(2013)
A 29-year-old computer wizard working for America’s super-secret spy agency becomes the biggest whistleblower in US history, leaking huge caches of classified documents that expose his nation’s ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘illegal’ cyber surveillance. Foreign leaders protest, but reaction in the US is polarized.
In 2006, a young American computer expert named Edward Snowden (1983–) went to work for the Central Intelligence Agency as a technician/IT specialist with top-secret clearance. Over the next six years he moved on to other positions in cyber intelligence, employed by Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton as cover for his high-level administrative work for the National Security Agency.
As Snowden became more aware of the nature and scope of US cyber spying, he expressed concerns to multiple coworkers and two supervisors about the programme’s apparent violations of US and international law. However, his superiors ignored his complaints and told him to simply continue doing his job, which increased his crisis of conscience.
In 2012 and early 2013 he began downloading classified documents that exemplified his concerns. As a Hawaii-based ‘system administrator’ with special security clearance, Snowden enjoyed direct access to the NSA central computer in Ft. Meade, Maryland, with the ability to look at any file he wished as a ‘ghost user’, making his actions hard to trace. He was able to use simple thumb drives, ‘web crawler’ software and other relatively unsophisticated technology to ‘scrape data’ from the NSA systems, downloading many large and extremely sensitive files.
Some of the agency’s secret surveillance included programmes which harvested millions of emails, contact lists, cell phone locations and other data from hundreds of millions of Americans’ Google and Yahoo accounts. The NSA was spying on top corporate executives, foreign heads of state, the chief of the European Union and other important figures, monitoring their personal and official communications. In some instances, it was seeking sexual information in order to discredit certain individuals.
In 2012–13 Snowden furnished copies of selected classified documents to top reporters in the US, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Brazil, Sweden, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Australia. He also insisted that his identity be publicly revealed. The disclosures generated considerable controversy and caused Snowden to be charged with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property. His US passport was revoked in 2013 and since then he has been living in exile in Russia. As of 2015 attempts are still being made to extradite him so that he can stand trial back in the United States.
The full extent of Snowden’s disclosure is unknown, but US intelligence sources have estimated the number of files at 1.7 million. Several news organizations and reporters have won major prizes for their reports based on some of the documents. At the same time, Snowden remains a controversial figure and public opinion about him has been divided. The impact of his whistleblowing on government spying remains to be seen.
The temporary passport that gave Snowden exile in Russia from 2013 to 2014.
Acknowledgements
As always, this book benefitted from the sage advice of Professor Tamar Gordon and the kindness of other family and friends. I also wish to thank Frank Hopkinson and David Salmo at Pavilion Books for their expert assistance.
The publisher wishes to thank the following for kindly supplying the images that appear in this book: Alamy: 122, 212. Anne Frank Zentrum, Berlin: 13, 162. AP: 128, 183. AP/Christie’s: 195. Apartheid Museum: 176, 177. Arxiu Municipal de Girona: 46. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library: 57. Berlin State Library: 53. Biblioteca Ambrosiana: 45 (top). Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana: 18 (right). Bodleian Library: 28. Bridgeman Images: 26. British Cartoon Archive: 155. British Library: 2–3, 30, 35, 36. Cambridge University Library: 74, 104, 105, 220, 222. Central Intelligence Agency: 202. CERN: 200, 201. Cheongju Early Printing Museum: 43. Chester Beatty Library: 45 (bottom). Congress.gov: 205 (right). Corbis: 70–71, 81, 89, 206–207. Cour de Cassation: 97. Echo – Cultural Heritage Online: 61. Ed Westcott/American Museum of Science and Energy: 159. EMI: 185 (bottom). European Commission Audiovisual Library: 180. Executive Office of the President of the United States: 204. Folger Shakespeare Library: 62. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum: 165 (bottom). German Museum of Books and Writing: 55. Getty Images: 37, 49 (top), 181, 185 (top), 199. Griffith Institute: 144, 145. Harold Rider Collection, ArchiTech Gallery, Chicago: 146. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: 210–211. Hereford Cathedral: 40–41. Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer: 96. Imaging Papyri Project, University of Oxford: 29, 224. International Committee of the Red Cross: 174, 175. International Institute of Social History: 108. Israeli Antiquities Authority: 22. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum: 182. Karpeles Manuscript Library: 110 (right). Lebendiges Museum Online: 198. Library of Congress: 58, 64, 84, 100, 106–107, 124, 136, 139. Louvre Museum: 17. Maggs Bros Ltd: 103. Mary Evans Picture Library: 54, 77, 141 (top), 154. Metropolitan Museum of Art: 18 (left), 33. Mitchell Archives: 76. Mullock’s: 102. Musée Champollion: 98. Museo del Prado: 47. Museo Naval de Madrid: 49 (bottom). National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution: 193 (bottom). National Archives (UK): 78, 130, 149, 153 (top). National Archives and Records Administration (USA): 34, 86, 93, 94, 117, 118, 120, 121, 134, 138, 141 (bottom), 156, 157, 158, 165 (top), 166 (top), 167, 170, 172, 173, 190, 193 (top). National Gallery: 39. National Portrait Gallery: 79. Newberry Library: 90. OECD PHOTO OCDE: 171. Oriental Institute, University of Chicago: 23. Parliamentary Archives: 114. Penguin Books: 223. Radio Times: 150, 151. Reuters Pictures: 203, 208, 213. Secker & Warburg: 168, 169. Sotheby’s, New York: 186, 194, 219. Spink/BNPS: 153 (bottom). Stanford University: 32. Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library: 69. Tokyo National Museum: 31. Twitter, Inc: 206 (top). United States White House: 206 (bottom). University of California, Riverside: 21. University of Minnesota: 101 (top). USC News Service/Irene Fertik: 197 (bottom). US Department of Justice: 205 (left). ViaLibri: 85. WikiLeaks: 209. Washington National Cathedral: 63. UN Photo Library/McLain: 166 (bottom). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: 142. University of Southern California: 197 (top). US Patent and Trademark Office: 125. Wannsee Conference House Memorial: 160, 161. Wellcome Library: 178, 179. Yinqueshan Han Tombs Bamboo Slips Museum: 20.
The most dramatic document in Britain’s Parliamentary Archives – the death warrant of Charles I. Oliver Cromwell’s signature can be seen far left. As a member of the Rump Parliament (1649–53), Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England (see here).
Index
Ad Extirpanda 36–37
Alaska Purchase Check 120–21
Aldrin Jr., Edwin E. ‘Buzz’ 192
Alhambra Decree 12, 46–47
Allenby, Sir Edmund 132
Anderson, Robert 116
Apollo 11 flight plan 192–93
Apple Computer Company
194–95
Aquinas, Thomas 38–39
Armstrong, Neil 192
Art of War, The (Sun Tzu) 20–21
Assange, Julian 208–9
Astor IV, John Jacob 128
Baker, Abby Scott 139
Bakr, Abu 32
Baldwin, Stanley 148
Balfour, Arthur James 132, 135
Balfour Declaration 132–33
Barber, Francis 80
Barker, Robert 63
Beatles’ EMI recording contract 12, 184–85
Beauregard, Pierre G. T. 116
Bedell Smith, Walter 164
Berners-Lee, Tim 196, 200–201
Bill of Rights (UK) 78–79
Bill of Rights (US) 79, 83, 87
bin Laden, Osama 202–3, 207
‘Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US’ memo 202–3
Blount, Edward 67
Bois, John 63
Bonaparte, Napoléon 20, 96
Boswell, James 80
Bradford, William 64
Bride, Harold 128
Burke, Edmund 80
Bush, George 203, 204
Cailliau, Robert 200
Cameron, Simon 116
Carnarvon, Lord 144
Carter, Howard 144–45
Cassin, René 172
Cerf, Vinton 196
Chamberlain, Neville 152, 155
Champollion, Jean-François 12, 98–99
Charles I, King 70–71, 72
Charles II, King 70, 72, 76
Charles V, Emperor 54, 55, 59
Chekhov, Anton 123
Chevalier, Charles 100
Apple Computer Company’s founding legal documents, signed by Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne, were sold at auction for $1.4 million in 2010 (see here).