Biography

Daniel Domscheit-Berg (German: [ˈdaːni̯eːl ˌdɔmʃaɪtˈbɛʁk, -ni̯ɛl -]; né Berg; born 1978), previously known under the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt, is a German technology activist. He is best known as the former spokesperson for WikiLeaks and the author of Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website (2011).

Domscheit-Berg began working with WikiLeaks after meeting Assange at the Chaos Computer Club's annual conference in 2007. In August 2010, Domscheit-Berg was suspended from WikiLeaks by Assange after Domscheit-Berg challenged Assange's effectiveness as a leader. In September 2010, Domscheit-Berg resigned from WikiLeaks, saying "WikiLeaks has a structural problem. I no longer want to take responsibility for it, and that's why I am leaving the project."

On December 17, 2010, he announced plans to open a new website for anonymous online leaks called OpenLeaks. At a Chaos Computer Club (CCC) event in August 2011, he announced its preliminary launch and invited hackers to test the security of the OpenLeaks system. The launch was a failure as it was unable to get online. The CCC criticized Domscheit-Berg for exploiting the good name of the club to promote his OpenLeaks project and expelled him from the club. This decision was revoked in February 2012. In September 2011, several news organizations cited Domscheit-Berg's split from Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as one of a series of events that led to the release that month of all 251,287 United States diplomatic cables in the Cablegate affair.

In 2011, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine in its FP Top 100 Global Thinkers.