WikiLeaks is among the most controversial institutions of the last decade, and this essay contributes to an understanding of WikiLeaks by revealing the philosophical paradigm at the foundation of Julian Assange’s worldview: cypherpunk ethics. The cypherpunk movement emerged in the early-1990s, advocating the widespread use of strong cryptography as the best means for defending individual privacy and resisting authoritarian governments in the digital age. For the cypherpunks, censorship and surveillance were the twin evils of the computer age, but they viewed encryption as a means to circumvent both. As a cypherpunk, Assange advocates for the use of cryptography in the fight for individual privacy as well as the fight for global justice. His cosmopolitan disposition is informed by his hacker background, antiwar principles, and Enlightenment outlook. This essay places Assange’s philosophical idea in historical context, exploring his views on censorship, surveillance, and the right to communicate. It also connects his cypherpunk principles to WikiLeaks, showing that the strategy of encouraging data leaks from powerful political and economic organizations is classic cypherpunk political praxis.

WikiLeaks是过去十年中最具争议的机构之一，本文通过揭示朱利安·阿桑奇（Julian Assange）世界观的基础：哲学朋克伦理学，揭示了对WikiLeaks的理解。密码朋克运动始于1990年代初期，提倡广泛使用强大的加密技术，以此作为捍卫个人隐私和抵抗数字时代的专制政府的最佳手段。对于密码朋克来说，审查和监视是计算机时代的双重弊端，但他们将加密视为规避两者的一种手段。作为一个朋克朋克，阿桑奇（Assange）提倡在保护个人隐私以及争取全球正义的斗争中使用加密技术。他的国际化倾向是由于他的黑客背景，反战原则和启蒙思想所致。本文将阿桑奇的哲学思想置于历史背景下，探讨了他对审查，监视和交流权的看法。它还将其“密码朋克”原则与WikiLeaks联系起来，表明鼓励强大的政治和经济组织泄漏数据的策略是经典的“密码朋克”政治实践。