SAN FRANCISCO: Internet traffic to Wikipedia pages summarising knowledge about terror groups and their tools plunged nearly 30% percent after revelations of widespread Web monitoring by the US National Security Agency, suggesting that concerns about government snooping are hurting the ordinary pursuit of information.
A forthcoming paper in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal analyses the fall in traffic, arguing that it provides the most direct evidence to date of a so-called “chilling effect,” or negative impact on legal conduct, from the intelligence practices disclosed by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.