Julian Assange warns of internet danger The internet has become the "most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen," according to the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. In Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet, a series of interview transcripts originally broadcast on Russian state-controlled TV channel RT, Assange discusses government and corporate surveillance, anti-file sharing legislation and the social media phenomenon that has seen users willingly collaborate with sites such as Google, Facebook and Twitter who wish to collect their personal data. Using the internet is like "having a tank in your bedroom," says Assange, and a mobile phone is simply a "tracking device that also makes calls." He continues by saying "the universality of the internet will merge global humanity into one giant grid of mass surveillance and mass control." Only through encrypting your online activity, he claims, will it be possible to create an information network that the state will not be able to decipher. Written in a stirring style that will delight his fans but seem a touch over the top to the sceptical, Assange writes in his introduction that "it is time to take up the arms of our new world, to fight for ourselves and for those we love." Assange, still editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, sought political asylum from Ecuador on June 19 in order to avoid extradition to Sweden, where the authorities are anxious to question him over alleged sexual offences. He has claimed that if he leaves the Ecuador embassy in London he will be extradited to the US, where a grand jury is investigating WikiLeaks over its 2010 publication of leaked US diplomatic cables. Assange says his predicament has influenced his opinions. While many writers have considered what the internet means for global civilisation, they are wrong ... They are wrong because they have never met the enemy ... We have met the enemy.