Claim: Julian Assange was involved in some capacity with the publication of secret documents from America.

WikiLeaks -LSB- ˈwɪkiliːks -RSB- is an international non-profit organisation that publishes secret information , news leaks , and classified media provided by anonymous sources . Its website , initiated in 2006 in Iceland by the organisation Sunshine Press , claims a database of 10 million documents in 10 years since its launch . Julian Assange , an Australian Internet activist , is generally described as its founder , editor-in-chief , and director .   The group has released a number of prominent document dumps . Early releases included documentation of equipment expenditures and holdings in the Afghanistan war and a report informing a corruption investigation in Kenya . In April 2010 , WikiLeaks released the so-called Collateral Murder footage from the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi journalists were among those killed . Other releases in 2010 included the Afghan War Diary and the `` Iraq War Logs '' . The latter allowed the mapping of 109,032 deaths in `` significant '' attacks by insurgents in Iraq that had been reported to Multi-National Force -- Iraq , including about 15,000 that had not been previously published . In 2010 , Wikileaks also released the U.S. State Department diplomatic `` cables '' , classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department . In April 2011 , WikiLeaks began publishing 779 secret files relating to prisoners detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp .   During the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign , WikiLeaks released emails and other documents from the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton 's campaign manager , John Podesta suggesting impropriety against fellow Democratic Party candidate senator Bernie Sanders , among other issues . These releases caused significant embarrassment to the Clinton campaign , and to Hillary Clinton , and is speculated to have contributed to the Democratic Party 's loss . The U.S. intelligence community expressed `` high confidence '' that the leaked emails had been hacked by Russia and supplied to WikiLeaks , while WikiLeaks denied their source was Russia or any other state . During the campaign , WikiLeaks has promoted conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party .   WikiLeaks has drawn criticism for its absence of whistleblowing on or criticism of Russia , and for criticising the Panama Papers ' exposé of businesses and individuals with offshore bank accounts . WikiLeaks has also been criticised for inadequately curating its content and violating the personal privacy of individuals . WikiLeaks has , for instance , revealed Social Security numbers , medical information , credit card numbers , details of suicide attempts , and other sensitive personal information .