"We Are Bradley Manning": Information Policy, the Legal Subject, and the WikiLeaks Complex

Abstract

Because autonomous networks such as WikiLeaks have no presence in US law as legal subjects, the US government struggled to identify the legal subject during the trial of Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning) that led to the conviction of Manning for illegal release of classified information to WikiLeaks. This article analyzes the multiple arguments used by the government to identify a legal subject, working outwards from targeting the biological individual Julian Assange as the most concrete identity for the network through multiple other approaches, winding up with anyone with an ip address that was used to look at Twitter comments on or reports about WikiLeaks.