Skirmishes raged across in cyberspace Thursday between WikiLeaks supporters and the companies they accuse of trying to stifle the group, with websites on both sides of the battle line choked off by attacks. Offline, some efforts by the US government and its allies to punish the website dedicated to publishing secret documents landed in court or headed to one.
Judicial authorities in France foiled the French government's effort to boot WikiLeaks from its French computer servers, while supporters in Switzerland and Germany threatened lawsuits against US financial companies who have cut their ties to WikiLeaks. A protest in Australia the first of a series planned there and in Britain sent about 250 demonstrators into the streets of Brisbane.
"Over the last few weeks, we've seen a world-wide campaign against WikiLeaks and its project to create more transparency within government," rally organiser Jessica Payne said. "We're here today to defend WikiLeaks and defend our right to freedom of information."
WikiLeaks has been under intense pressure since it began publishing some 250,000 US State Department cables, with attacks on its websites and threats against its founder, Julian Assange, who is now in a British jail fighting extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations. US officials say WikiLeaks' actions have thrown diplomacy world-wide into disarray, caused countries to curtail their dealings with America and, in the case of an earlier release of classified military documents, put the lives of informants at risk.
The Obama administration has put intense pressure on US-based Internet companies to cut any ties to WikiLeaks, and many have done so, including MasterCard Inc, Visa Inc, Amazon.com, PayPal Inc and EveryDNS. Those moves have hurt WikiLeaks' ability to accept donations and support publishing efforts and raised concerns at the United Nations.
Top UN human rights official Navi Pillay told reporters in Geneva that she was concerned that moves against WikiLeaks "could be interpreted as an attempt to censor the publication of information" in a way that violates WikiLeaks' right to free expression.Online attacks on WikiLeaks' perceived foes continued Thursday, rendering PayPal's blog unreachable and targeting the popular online payment service's infrastructure. The loose-knit online collective Anonymous which has claimed responsibility for the cyber-assaults in defence of WikiLeaks said it was fighting "against those who seek to misuse the Internet," according to an unsigned pamphlet that circulated Thursday on Twitter.
Anonymous has also suffered online setbacks. Its main website was unreachable Thursday, while a Twitter account held in Anonymous's name was also pulled. Neither development seemed to stop supporters from distributing software used to overwhelm target websites with requests for data. WikiLeaks has said it has no connection and no contact with Anonymous.
WikiLeaks has reported repeated attacks on its computer systems over the last few weeks by unknown assailants. Earlier the group attributed the cyber attacks to the intelligence agencies of the United States and its allies although Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said he had "no information to suggest the Defence Department has knowledge" of the attacks on WikiLeaks.
Anonymous and its sympathisers are using a modified version of software generally used to conduct "stress testing" on websites, according to Paul Mutton, an analyst with London-based internet research and security company Netcraft, which is tracking the attacks.
Meanwhile WikiLeaks' financial facilitators said they were sharpening their legal knives. The Germany-based Wau Holland Foundation, which has previously described itself as WikiLeaks' main backer, on Thursday protested PayPal's decision to cut ties with WikiLeaks and said about ¤10,000 ($13,000) in donations for WikiLeaks had been frozen in the company's account.
Another pro-WikiLeaks rally was planned in Brisbane on Friday, and similar protest was being held Monday in London outside the Swedish Embassy. In the central Pakistani city of Multan, dozens of people took to the streets to burn US and British flags to protest Assange's detention. Organiser Tariq Naeemullah called for the Australian's immediate release. "The brave man was arrested because he was exposing the real face of the big powers," he said.