PayPal Admits 'U.S. Pressure' To Cut Off WikiLeaks; Nerds Retaliate Against MasterCard
It is TOTAL WAR as far as the credit card companies and PayPal and WikiLeaks and the people who like the leaks and hate the sneaks are concerned. We cannot recall *ever* seeing so many ridiculous headlines in one morning, about credit cards/cyber war or whatever:
PayPal today admitted it suspended payments to WikiLeaks after an intervention from the US State Department.
The site's vice-president of platform, Osama Bedier, told an internet conference the site had decided to freeze WikiLeaks's account on 4 December after government representatives said it was engaged in illegal activity.
"State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward," he told the LeWeb conference in Paris, adding: "We ... comply with regulations around the world, making sure that we protect our brand."
Anybody named "Osama" certainly knows about protecting their brand.
Next, ABC News:
The website for MasterCard suffered severe technical problems early Wednesday, possibly becoming the latest target of hackers supporting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Supporters of the organization that has released thousands of classified government documents said they would attack companies and groups hostile to its founder.
MasterCard spokesman James Issokson said in an interview Wednesday that the company can't confirm whether WikiLeaks is involved. Yet the problems occurred on the same day of attacks on websites for Swedish prosecutors, the Swedish lawyer whose clients have accused Assange of sexual crimes and the Swiss authority that froze Assange's bank account.
Mastercard Inc. pulled the plug on its relationship with WikiLeaks on Tuesday.
LOL.
First the War on Drugs, followed by War onTerror, then the War on Christmas, now the War on MasterCard. Wake me when there's a War on War. Or when Victoria's Secrets are on WikiLeaks.
Good on them, I say. Cockroaches always freak out when you shine a light on them. I'm embarrassed (but not surprised) that our government put the screws to PayPal. My biggest disappointment is that I didn't think to send some money wikileaks before they were shut down. I think it's always a good idea to keep the lights on.