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John L. Young, often praised as an under-authorized hero of the digital era and co-founder of the Cryptome revolutionary transparency platform, died on March 28 in New York. His death, in relative anonymity, strongly contrasts with the thunderous revelations which defined his pioneering work.
His death was quietly recognized by ArchinocateA professional publication for architects, June 4:
“John L. Young, architect and co-founder (with his wife Deborah Natsios) Cryptomdied in March, ”wrote the publication, but offered no other details. The New York TimesHe died in a rehabilitation center in Manhattan.
Decades before the world became familiar with the concept of organized digital leaks, Young was among the first to grasp the deep potential of the nascent Internet. He has planned his power to publish online confidential government documents, thus allowing citizens of information and holding the powerful responsible for their actions.
Since June 1996 – a complete decade before the emergence of Wikileaks – The cryptoma has been a relentless publisher of tens of thousands of documents “prohibited by governments around the world, in particular those related to freedom of expression, private life and cryptology”, as the creators of the site note carefully. Young founded Cryptoma, which he affectionately called a “free public library”, as a real precursor of Wikileaks, publishing without fear of the crude government, both classified and not classified.
Protective team photographs close to Barack Obama and complete transcriptions of the security provisions implemented by the American Ministry of Defense, with detailed plans of sensitive installations – these are the revelations of cryptome, not Wikileaks.
In a pivotal moment in 2011, Cryptoma made the headlines by publishing the unresaled version of the 251,000 American diplomatic cables that Wikileaks had obtained in 2010. Until then, WikiLeaks and its media partners had published only a few thousand these documents, meticulously refusing sensitive information like the names and coordinates of individuals considered to be vulnerable.
Critics and the US government vehemently supported at the time that the unresaled publication of cryptoma could endanger the sources mentioned in the documents, in particular the informants working for American embassies in authoritarian diets or war areas.
Although Wikileaks is a direct competitor in the field of transparency, the young person fiercely defended Julian Assange during his prolonged confrontation with the American government, in particular in 2020. The American authorities asked for the extradition of Assange, accusing it of offenses to be traced. Young considered it a persecution and boldly challenged the US government to pursue it too.
“I published on Cryptome.org of diplomatic cables not expelled on September 1, 2011, under the URL https://cryptome.org/z/z.7z, and this publication remains available at present”, he declared In a provocative declaration to the Ministry of Justice in 2020, a copy of which is accessible to Cryptome.org. “Since my publication on Cryptome.org of unwanted diplomatic cables, no American authority for applying the law has informed me that this publication of cables is illegal, consists or contributes to a crime in any way, and they have not asked them.”
With its discreet conception, Cryptoma website Links to accommodated documents and external articles. Young, an architect from Manhattan who was also the site administrator, humbly described himself as an “amateur” whistleblower, distinct from those “with a greater goal”. It is perhaps this modest nature that distinguishes it; When Julian Assange himself approached Young to play an active role in Wikileaks, Young has respectfully refused.
It is prudent to assume that Young was not favored by American intelligence agencies, which frequently criticized it for having published very sensitive documents, including lists of agent names. His pioneer website also faced a constant examination, “several times a day” attacks of computer robots designed to analyze the content of his pages, a testimony of the persistent threat perceived by those whose secrets he highlighted.
Young, a left -wing activist graduated from Columbia University, is survived by his wife (Natsios) and three children from his first marriage.
