Julian Assange talked for a long time in a video Reddit AMA on ThailandTuesday, but he didn't have too much to say on the big questions.
WikiLeaks' proposed database of everyone verified on Twitter? A "false story."
Criticism from the press or politicians? "Ad-hominem attacks."
And Russia? On the receiving end of "critical" WikiLeaks' document dumps, just like the United States.
SEE ALSO: Attention internet: WikiLeaks is now anti-leaksThe WikiLeaks founder, who has been living in political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, answered questions via live video on Reddit. The AMA didn't go in depth on allegations that WikiLeaks released documents obtained by the Russian government's alleged hack of the Democratic National Committee in the United States. Assange didn't talk much about President-elect Donald Trump or his ties to Russia, either.
Instead, Assange waxed poetic about privacy, surveillance and WikiLeaks' fight against the ruling class.
Assange told Redditors that "mass surveillance produces fear and conformity," that WikiLeaks publishes at a unpredictable schedule to counter establishment "war rooms" set up to deal with the rogue publisher, and that even Reddit isn't free of censorship since it's owned by Condé Nast.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump trusts WikiLeaks more than the CIA or FBIIn the most detailed answer, Assange outlined his claim that reports that WikiLeaks planned to develop a database of verified Twitter users — journalists and politicians included — were false.
On Jan. 6, the verified Twitter account WikiLeaks Task Force tweeted, "We are thinking of making an online database with all 'verified' twitter accounts & their family/job/financial/housing relationships." (The tweet has since been deleted.)
"Data points are needed to create a map of predictors to understand relationships between people involved in influencing on Twitter," Assange said in his AMA. He described Twitter as a "class hierarchy" between those who are verified and those who are not, where the verified take up "identity politics" when their security is threatened.
Assange also explained his "crazy October," as asked by one Redditor, when his Internet connection was cut off at the Ecuadorian embassy. Assange said there was more British security than usual and reaffirmed his status as a "political refugee."
To prove that his answers weren't pre-recorded and he was alive, Assange read the most recent block in the blockchain. For non-experts, he read recent sports scores, but wasn't sure how to pronounce the team "Knicks."
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