In my alternate universe, the Soviet Union won the cold war and the United States collapsed. The former USA splintered into several regional nations.
The European Union has been absorbed into the Soviet bloc, which now includes all of Western Europe and the Mediterranean.
The Eastern Seaboard of North America from Newfoundland to Florida joined the Soviet bloc and the leaders of these nations are loyal to the Kremlin.
The West Coast of North America from British Columbia through Baja California has deep military and economic integration with China, and is now subject to censorship and social controls dictated from Beijing.
Saskatchewan through Texas and Mexico is now a loose federation of independent nations that is not aligned with either of the two great powers, and is trying to be like Switzerland used to be -- they don't take sides, and they don't stir up trouble. They mind their own business and avoid international disputes.
A free citizen of Kansaslahoma finds a cache of documents showing that the Kremlin and Soviet oligarchs are using their military and financial might to lock up energy resources and systematically transfer wealth from nonaligned nations to the Soviet Union.
1. Giving the documents to the leaders of Kansaslahoma won't help, because they won't stir up disputes with a hyperpower.
2. Reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents by yourself isn't viable, and time is of the essence.
3. You can expose the docs for millions of people in nonaligned states to read and analyze. Maybe Moscow's data controls will be porous enough that some Soviet citizens will learn what their leaders are doing in their names.
Even if your actions don't precipitate a revolution by themselves, you know that you're imposing a lot of security overhead every time they try to communicate among themselves.
So the Soviet military-industrial-financial complex will become slower and less effective in their efforts at world domination.