Amazon and Paypal terminate Wikileaks services

Well, it would appear as though Amazon have cancelled Wikileaks hosting (yes, the link is dead), causing them to drop off the internet. Wikileaks have since re-emerged as wikileaks.de, but this is pretty poor show by Amazon. Apparently, this is the result of Amazon getting pressure from the US, the supposed “land of the free”. So much for free speech.

(source)

Paypal have also cancelled Wikileaks’ account, citing “a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity.”

(source)

I’m not convinced that anything that Wikileaks has done has been illegal, unless it’s suddenly illegal to reveal the truth? Particularly truths that are clearly in the public interest. This smacks of panic by the US government, in a move to prevent any more embarrassment. Surely, with the various Freedom of Information Acts around the world, international governments must realise that anything they do is eventually going to come out into the public arena at some point anyway.

Disclaimer
I am in no way suggesting that you cancel your relationship with Amazon, Paypal, or any of the other services mentioned above or in the links given. I leave it to you to decide whether you continue doing business with these organisations.

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