Anonymous remove support for Wikileaks and Julian Assange

On the left you can see the WikiLeaks “paywall” image that you currently see when visiting some of the released leaks. The “paywall” is now simple to get around just by reloading the page however it encourages you to donate, spread the word by sharing the video or posting to twitter. However in the first days it was on the website you have to explicitly disable JavaScript to get access to the site which meant many non-technical users had no way of accessing the website. The message at the bottom of the donation page states

“WikiLeaks is fighting a banking blockade. Donate or spread this campaign to make the popup go away. It appears once per day.”

Shortly after the paywall was placed on the site  there was a pastebin reply (now removed) from anonymous. In this reply they talk about the history of “supporting the organization WikiLeaks and it’s besieged founder Julian Assange”. Commenting that they have “provided some of the biggest leaks since the infamous cables were disclosed, incuding the Syria Files and the GI (Stratfor) Files”. The message goes on to talk about 14 members of their group in prison facing indictment (15 years in prison) and Jeremy Hammond and Bradley Mannings facing 20 years and life respectively. The message stated that they knew that the donation paywall could be circumnavigated by JavaScript nor that they had an issue with WikiLeaks asking for donations but felt that

“WikiLeaks has chosen to dishonor and insult Anonymous and all information activists by prostituting the Stratfor Files and other disclosures that Hammond and Manning stand accused of supplying”

The message ends with concern with the direction that WikiLeaks was going in, regarding that it has moved from leaks to a Julian Assange show asking for money. They state they shall not help WikiLeaks anymore that they will however not attack it as “they are media. We do not attack media.” They state they will release documents on WikiLeaks later, and that they have a variety of websites that they will continue to release leaks on. WikiLeaks responded to this via twitter

WikiLeaks @wikileaks A tweet, share, wait or donate campaign is not a “paywall”. You can read about our blockade and funding systems here: http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate

Which generated a variety of responses from users:

AnonymousIRC @AnonymousIRC – link

@wikileaks You just linked to ANOTHER donation site? At this time we discourage anyone from donating anything to WL until this is sorted.

 

Anonymous @DBCOOPA – link

@wikileaks It’s still a wall. It just seems to aggressive block the information in the interest of funds. We don’t like it. That’s all.

 

Sven Slootweg @joepie91 – link

@wikileaks If it isn’t a paywall, then where is the “No thanks” button, eh?

For now, the paywall it still there however it seems to disappear after reloading once, It seems WikiLeaks is now no longer supported by Anonymous. It will be interesting to see how this continues.