WikiLeaks suggests questionable database of verified Twitter users
WikiLeaks, a website that once stood for the disclosure of private and secretive government documents but has since gone a bit crazy, has come up with the bizarre idea of creating an "online database" of verified Twitter users and their financial, occupational, and even personal information. The idea was proposed on Twitter, of course, by the WikiLeaks Task Force, an official account of the organization, and was subsequently met with concern.
The account, which has a goal to "correct misinformation about #WikiLeaks," made little to no attempt to explain how such a database would work or what purpose it would serve. Responding to a tweet from journalist Kevin Collier, WikiLeaks wrote that wants "to develop a metric to understand influence networks based on proximity graphs."
The tweet suggesting the database was eventually deleted after receiving criticism that collecting such information would make it a tool for harassing people and gathering private details.
.@kevincollier No it is to develop a metric to understand influence networks based on proximity graphs.
— WikiLeaks Task Force (@WLTaskForce) January 6, 2017
There's also the fact that Twitter's official @Safety account not-so-subtly mentioned that sharing such information would be a violation of their rules.
According to Twitter's @Verified account, around of the social network's 237,000 users have the special blue check-mark. The majority of these accounts belong to people like journalists, celebrities, and politicians, along with brands and companies. Whatever the reason WikiLeaks has for such a database, it's clear it would be little more than a tool for doxing verified Twitter users.
SOURCE WikiLeaks Task Force/Twitter