Thursday, December 9, 2010

CYBERWAR UPDATE: Breaking:XipWire Taking WikiLeaks Donations. PayPal Caves, Releases Funds.

PayPal has put up a statement on their blog  announcing that:
While the account will remain restricted, PayPal will release all remaining funds in the account to the foundation that was raising funds for WikiLeaks.
More after the cut.
CORRECTION: You can still donate through bank transfer as well, see here for details, but the credit card method listed on that site does not work.
UPDATE:  ZipLine is currently taking donations for WikiLeaks, if you want to donate.  It is the only way I am aware of to donate.  Sorry for the title changes, things are moving fast.
This may seem only reasonable, and for any other company it would be.  However, PayPal has a history of freezing peoples funds for no good reason and then dragging their feet when the subjects of the freeze try to get the funds unfrozen.
The previous victims of PayPal include Cryptome, a site similar to WikiLeaks[not a former staffer].  In that case PayPal told Cryptome that they could not tell them why thier fund had been frozen because of PayPal's privacy policy, as absurd as that may sound.
The point here isn't just to point out the problems with PayPal, that could be a whole series of diaries, but to note that these funds were unfrozen uncharacteristically fast.  One can only assume that it had something to do with the DDoS attacks by Anonymous in solidarity with Assange.
While the account is still restricted, one would hope that this is the beginning of some good news for WikiLeaks on the financial front.
UPDATE:  Anonymous has release a letter "to inform you of the message, our intentions, potential targets, and our ongoing peaceful campaign for freedom."
UPDATE: From geraldlaslo in the comments(who also corrected my Cryptome info in the diary): The Congressional Research Service Report makes it pretty clear that it is unlikely that WikiLeaks can be charged in the matter of the leaks. 

No comments:

Post a Comment