PayPal cuts WikiLeaks account
Source: Agencies |
December 5, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE online payment service provider PayPal has cut off the account used by WikiLeaks to collect donations, serving another blow to the organization just as it was struggling to keep its website accessible after an American company stopped directing traffic to it.
PayPal said in a blog posting that the move was prompted by a violation of its 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."
The short notice was dated on Friday, and a spokeswoman for PayPal Germany yesterday declined to elaborate and referred to the official blog posting.
Donating money to WikiLeaks via PayPal yesterday was not possible anymore, generating an error message saying "this recipient is currently unable to receive money."
PayPal is one of several ways WikiLeaks collects donations - and until now it was probably the most secure and convenient.
The other options listed on WikiLeaks' website are through mail to an Australian post office box, through bank transfers to accounts in Switzerland, Germany or Iceland as well as through one "credit card processing partner" in Switzerland.
WikiLeaks' PayPal account redirects users to a German foundation named after a German hacker which provides the organization with the money. The Wau Holland Foundation, named after a German hacker, confirmed yesterday in a Twitter message that their PayPal account had been taken down. Messages left for the foundation were not immediately answered.
The move by PayPal, a subsidiary of US based online marketplace operator EBay Inc, came as another blow to the organization that has embarrassed Washington and foreign leaders by releasing a cache of secret and frank US diplomatic cables.
WikiLeaks had become an Internet vagabond on Friday, forced to move from one website to another as governments and hackers hounded the organization, trying to deprive it of a direct line to the public.
PayPal said in a blog posting that the move was prompted by a violation of its 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."
The short notice was dated on Friday, and a spokeswoman for PayPal Germany yesterday declined to elaborate and referred to the official blog posting.
Donating money to WikiLeaks via PayPal yesterday was not possible anymore, generating an error message saying "this recipient is currently unable to receive money."
PayPal is one of several ways WikiLeaks collects donations - and until now it was probably the most secure and convenient.
The other options listed on WikiLeaks' website are through mail to an Australian post office box, through bank transfers to accounts in Switzerland, Germany or Iceland as well as through one "credit card processing partner" in Switzerland.
WikiLeaks' PayPal account redirects users to a German foundation named after a German hacker which provides the organization with the money. The Wau Holland Foundation, named after a German hacker, confirmed yesterday in a Twitter message that their PayPal account had been taken down. Messages left for the foundation were not immediately answered.
The move by PayPal, a subsidiary of US based online marketplace operator EBay Inc, came as another blow to the organization that has embarrassed Washington and foreign leaders by releasing a cache of secret and frank US diplomatic cables.
WikiLeaks had become an Internet vagabond on Friday, forced to move from one website to another as governments and hackers hounded the organization, trying to deprive it of a direct line to the public.
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