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A library science student's perspective on life, the universe, and everything.

Monday, October 24, 2011

The end of WikiLeaks?

According to founder Julian Assange, WikiLeaks is in serious enough financial trouble to temporarily halt all publishing endeavors. This is the result of a blockade by major financial institutions such as Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, and Bank of America which prohibits the transfer of donations from WikiLeak supporters to the organization via their services. Following the initial blockade, WikiLeaks has managed to survive on cash donations for almost a year, but now things are looking grim. Discussing this "existential threat," Julian Assange revealed that the blockade had "cost the site tens of millions of dollars in lost donations and... if the blockade is not taken down by the end of the year the organization cannot continue in its work." Estimates are that WikiLeaks donations have dropped up to 95% over the last year because of this financial quarantine.

However, despite these desperate times, WikiLeaks isn't showing signs of surrender quite yet. Next month WikiLeaks plans to unveil a new, secure way for the general public to submit leaked documents to the site. 

Read more:
WikiLeaks Press Statement 10-23-11
Journalism.co.uk
Wall Street Journal

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