I’ve got confirmed today that I am capable of supporting Al-Qaeda, Ku Klux Klan, buy weapons, drugs and all sorts of pornography with a VISA card. But that’s not being investigated. Instead I can not support a humanitarian organisation fighting for the freedom of speech.
This quote from the founder of Datacell, the Icelandic company that processes credit and debit card donations to WikiLeaks, points out the absolutely stunning hypocrisy of companies like Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and Amazon.com who suddenly stopped doing business with WikiLeaks, while continuing to do business with other organizations that clearly violate their sacred terms of service.
Interestingly, after WikiLeaks’ website got kicked off of Amazon they moved to French hosting provider OVH. But when the French government demanded that OVH stop hosting WikiLeaks, instead of meekly complying, the company asked the courts what to do. The courts ruled that the French government has to actually, you know, prove that WikiLeaks broke the law before trying to intimidate private companies into dropping them.
I guess this means that Muslims can stop hating us because of our freedoms!
I do have to mention that Twitter and Facebook have so far continued to keep WikiLeaks as members. And if you still want to donate money to WikiLeaks, at least one US company will process donations to them, saying “While people may or may not agree with WikiLeaks, we at XIPWIRE believe that anyone who wishes to support the organization through a donation should be able to do so. We’re fully aware that not everyone likes what Wikileaks is. But we are prepared to accept the consequences.”
