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Paypal pulls the plug on Wikileaks
AFTER YEARS of collecting cash for the online whistleblowing website Wikileaks, Paypal has pulled the plug on the outfit.
According to Paypal it has shut down the account used by WikiLeaks due to what it calls a violation of its Acceptable Use Policy, which says that its payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity.
It seems that since Wikileaks recently published all those embarrassing US government communiques it might have encouraged something illegal and therefore had to be cut off.
This dumps Wikileaks in with the criminal organisations that Paypal's Acceptable Use Policy was clearly designed for.
It would appear strange that while Wikileaks has been operating for a several years, Paypal has just woken up to its activities.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Wikileaks claims that Paypal, which is a subsidiary of Ebay and based in the US, bowed to US government demands to withdraw its service. Paypal was one of several means that enabled Wikileaks to receive donations and finance its operations.
Paypal has joined in cutting all ties to the online whistleblowing group with Amazon, which also apparently had a sudden blinding realisation that Wikileaks is 'evil'. µ
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True that, Nick, but since Congress did not make a law in this case, the First Amendment does not apply. PayPal is legally free to cut off WikiLeaks (and to continue to support the KKK - see http://anon126.blogspot.com/2010/12/paypal-visa-and-mastercard-card-anti.html if you want details).
The text of the First Amendment begins, "Congress shall make no law..." I am quite certain that the law was never in question here. Blackmail of the people who run PayPal by extra-legal employees of the US Government is not "making a law." Big Brother is not concerned with making laws; he rules by fiat and whim.
I for one am boycotting both Amazon and paypal. Gutless facist companies who clearly do not believe in freedom of speech or care about truth. Shame on them. They've shown their true colours. Viva wikileaks.
Pay Pal does what its masters tell it to do. I will be boycotting them in future. Alternative micropayment services will benefit greatly from PayPals actions.
Wow Paypal, way to go to absolutely destroy your client base. There is no way we will continue using Paypal now.
You've just sparked the next round of competitors and shot yourself in the foot.
Antidemocratic monsters.
And look at this power from *your* own direction, people: when "money" is nothing but numbers in a computer, your ability to live can be quite literally cut off with one click on the "unperson-ize" button. That's why gov't wants to do away with cash: total control, don't even have to lock you up and shoot you, just let you starve unable to "buy" anything.
I kind of get a feeling that the USofA is slowly becoming a Communist nation like the PRofChina.
We should boycott ebay and paypal from now on. Either way they rip up a big percentage for a service that almost free for them.
No doubt this action by paypal comes from their paymasters - the crooked american administration.
I have boycotted paypal for a number of years. I urge you all to join in.
"According to Paypal it has shut down the account used by WikiLeaks due to what it calls a violation of its Acceptable Use Policy, which says that its payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity"
What a load of rubbish. I can provide between 5-10 websites that Paypal are happy to deal with,(indeed they have been Paypal verified) who are shipping fakes from China. Paypal know about these organisations and the fact that they sell fakes, but failed to invoke their "Acceptable Use Policy". Paypal are a disgrace.
For books, the newish website based in Jersey, Channel Islands (The Book Depository) has better service and prices than Amazon anyway. There are plenty of websites selling household goods for lower prices (and an equally wide range) in Europe and the USA.
Alternatives to PayPal are in short supply, but they will start to sppear now. Paypal have cooked their own goose.
I want to boycott amazon and paypal. But where do I go ---what companies online haven't given in to govt pressure?
Did Wikileaks do anything illegal? No.
The criminal is the one who works in the US State Department. Besides, the NYTimes, the Ggardian and Der Spiegal also printed the leaks.
PayPal has demonstrated that it will use its power to censor what the public knows about its government. PayPal is therefore the personification of evil.
taking the moral high ground here?
Keep thinking of all the billions of dollars in micro payments that you support, specifically those cheap Chinese knock-offs shipped to the West daily through your eBay...