Wikileaks‘ website is up again after over a week of denial of service attacks, though as of this writing I’m still seeing many errors on the site. On its Twitter account Wikileaks credited CloudFlare, a company that provides a web security service, for helping the organization get its site back online.
Earlier this month Wikileaks resumed publishing e-mails acquired (yes, illegally) by the… → Read More
Wikileaks has just announced that they’re processing a trove of 2.4 million emails from and to Syrian officials that details the links between the internationally despised regime and outside governments and organizations. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange wrote that the “the material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s external opponents.”
The emails could have… → Read More
You may agree with Wikileaks’ mission. Or you may think they’re a menace. Or perhaps something in between. But here’s one thing you can’t deny: they’re an organization, with a leader, a name, and (however well hidden) servers, bank accounts, and so on. They also have principles — which, again, may not be to your liking, but they at least exist: removing certain identifying information… → Read More
WikiLeaks and its credit card processing partner Datacell have just announced their intent to file suit in the EU against Visa and Mastercard for blocking donations to the service last year.
In early December the two payments companies cut off all payments to the relatively quiet as of late organization, with Mastercard citing that its “rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly… → Read More
Last time we checked in with PayPal, it, along with MasterCard, Visa and others had blocked its services with regards to donations to WikiLeaks foundation.
Today it is being reported that PayPal has taken further action against another WikiLeaks-related fund, in freezing the account of the Courage To Resist foundation which, in conjunction with the Bradley Manning Support Network, gives… → Read More
In response to the escalating Mubarak protests, the latest release of WikiLeaks have been Egypt or MENA related. One cable from November 2008 is particularly interesting, revealing that the State Department spoke to YouTube in 2007 regarding the takedown of videos posted by Egyptian bloggers. The cable is an action request for the State Department to contact someone named Pablo at Google (their… → Read More
In an interview with 60 Minutes, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange compares his values to those of the Founding Fathers of the United States and argues that he is actually playing “inside the rules.” He defends his actions by leaning heavily on the First Amendment, stating that “our founding values are those of the U.S. revolution.”
On the possibility of facing prosecution in the U.S. for leaking… → Read More
The US Department of Justice has served Twitter with a 2703(d) court order to reveal information about accounts related to people associated with WikiLeaks.
The order is a request for account data including the ominous “correspondence and notes of record related to the account” for users Jacob Appelbaum (@ioerror), Rop Gongrijp (@rop_g), Birgitta Jonsittir (@birgittaj); Julian Assange and… → Read More
Earlier today, the official Twitter account of Flattr, the micropayment startup founded by ex-Pirate Bay associates, tweeted that they were “excited excited excited …”, so we knew something was up. Now we’ve learned that the service, which enables users to ‘Like’ sites and content but with real money, is indeed rolling out something new: the ability to donate specific amounts of money to Flattr… → Read More
Earlier today, the official Twitter account of Flattr, the micropayment startup founded by ex-Pirate Bay associates, tweeted that they were “excited excited excited …”, so we knew something was up. Now we’ve learned that the service, which enables users to ‘Like’ sites and content but with real money, is indeed rolling out something new: the ability to donate specific amounts of money to Flattr… → Read More
Igor Barinov, the developer behind the WikiLeaks app that got removed from the App store, has revealed the total breakdown of his app’s reach before it got taken down by Apple. Total damage? 4443 downloads and $5,840.14 in profit. The Moscow-based Barinov says that he’ll be donating $1.00 from each sale, a total of $4443 dollars, to WikiLeaks.
Perhaps this semi-charity feature is what lead Apple… → Read More
Looks like an unofficial iPhone and iPad app that let you view WikiLeaks content and follow the WikiLeaks Twitter account on the go has been removed from the app store tonight. The app used to be available here.
Basically the paid app was selling content available for free for $1.99. Its entry into the app store on December 17th was actually surprising, as Apple is usually quite strict and… → Read More
On the first full day of Julian Assange’s release from imprisonment, we now learn that some members of the United Nations want to introduce some sort of worldwide Internet regulation. That’s nice. But don’t worry: this isn’t a “takeover,” or anything scary like that. It’s simply to ensure that we never see something like Wikileaks ever again. A bit late for that, no? → Read More
Wikleaks head Julian Assange is to be freed on bail today. He will leave either from the High Court (pictured, with Media Scrum) or from Wandsworth Prison Prison, either today or tomorrow, but it looks like today. The Bail has to be paid into the court in cash (£220,000) by the close of play this evening for him to be able to walk. The uncertainty is down to the fact that getting sureties signed… → Read More
Wikleaks head Julian Assange is to be freed on bail today. He will leave either from the High Court (pictured, with Media Scrum) or from Wandsworth Prison Prison, either today or tomorrow, but it looks like today. The Bail has to be paid into the court in cash (£220,000) by the close of play this evening for him to be able to walk. The uncertainty is down to the fact that getting sureties signed… → Read More
If you were anywhere near Twitter this morning it was pretty hard to miss the news: As Facebook approaches 600 million users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been chosen as TIME Magazine’s “2010 Person of the Year.” Zuckerberg, who beat out People’s Choice Award Julian Assange for the honor, sat down with TIME managing editor Rick Stengel to talk about how Facebook shaped the world in 2010. We’ve embedded… → Read More
It’s not over till it’s over huh. Wikileaks head Julian Assange has been granted bail. However, an immediate appeal lodged by Swedish prosecutors trying to have him extradited to Sweden to face rape allegations means that he must now stay in custody until the appeal is heard at some time in the next 48 hours. It’s not known when, as yet.
Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens, best known for defending… → Read More
That certainly didn’t take long. The former number two at Wikileaks, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, has said that he will launch the next-generation of leaking software (I guess you’d call it software) in the “coming months.” It’s to be called Openleaks, previously covered here, and it will try to fix some of the problems associated with the Wikileaks model, namely centralization. → Read More
Between the drama, intrigue and Interpol, the WikiLeaks saga has all the trimmings of a Hollywood movie. One friend of mine is debating quitting her job in order to write a movie script (She sees Lupin from Harry Potter as playing Assange). And she better hurry up — I’m betting at least two WikiLeaks-related scripts are getting pushed through Hollywood as I write this.
Perpetually outpacing the… → Read More
As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stews in a British jail, with a U.S. indictment reportedly imminent on top of the alleged Swedish sex crimes he was arrested for in the first place, some of his former staffers are already preparing to launch a competing site for whistleblowers called OpenLeaks. The new site will be headed up by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Assange’s former right-hand man who left… → Read More
The Internet vigilante group Anonymous has been thrust into the spotlight this week as the WikiLeaks story continues to erupt like a media volcano. So like any group at center of a story would do, Anonymous has put out (yes) a press release outlining the motivations behind the attacks on PayPal, Mastercard and Visa and implying a change in strategy after attacks on Amazon never materialized. → Read More
Want to check out WikiLeaks on one of its thousands of mirrors hosted around the globe? You might have to click around quite a bit to find one that’s available and fully up-to-date.
Opinion site Antiwar.com has now launched a tool that automagically directs visitors of the site wikileaks.antiwar.com to the best WikiLeaks mirror site in his or her area. It takes the guesswork out of finding a… → Read More
Well, we all knew this was coming. Like they’ve done time and time again, NMA.tv has delivered a hilariously over-the-top, strange animated video about a current event. This time, it’s WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange. Yes, the man everyone in the entire world is talking about.
And, naturally, we have plenty of tech companies making a cameo in the video. PayPal, Amazon, etc. → Read More
See, now this is getting silly. A group calling itself “Anonymous” has started to coordinate denial of service attacks against Wikileaks‘ enemies as part of “Operation Payback.” You know, companies like Amazon (kicked Wikileaks off its S3 servers), PayPal (froze its account for engaging in “illegal activities”), and EveryDNS (shut off its DNS services to Wikileaks). Nothing like good… → Read More
Today during the Media Panel at LeWeb ’10 in Paris, France, there was one thing on everyones’ mind: WikiLeaks.
“This is a turning point for the Internet — it’s not just about WikiLeaks anymore,” Weblogs SL’s Julio Alonso said. ”What happens to WikiLeaks will get applied to others later on,” he warned.
“This is the first attempt at censorship of the Internet by all the governments of the… → Read More
Of course Milo Yannopoulos’ first question on stage to PayPal’s Osama Bedier, Vice President of Platform, Mobile and New Ventures Osama Bedier was why PayPal blocked WikiLeaks payments. “State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward.” The question was met with boos from the mostly European audience.
Bedier basically admitted that PayPal has complied with governmental… → Read More
In retaliation for refusing to let Mastercard customers donate to Wikileaks, 4Chan-based hackers and the Internet vigilante group Anonymous have successfully taken down the website of Mastercard.com with orchestrated DDOS attacks. → Read More
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told a London court today that he will fight his extradition to Sweden on sex crime charges. Assange has been refused bail and will be remanded in custody till 14 December. It appears the reasons given by the court were that he has a “nomadic life”, refused to give his address and there is no record of his entry to the UK.
This means there will be a long drawn out… → Read More
Now that Wikileaks’ Julian Assange is currently in police custody, curiosity turns towards the file insurance.aes256. The file, which first appeared online last July, is so named because it’s said to represent “insurance” against any possible disruption in Wikileaks’ work. Considering the site has been fighting tool and nail to stay online for the past few days, and considering that the site’s… → Read More
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