Wikileaks puts up paywall for documents - minus bitcoin

[julz]

It's bad enough they throw up a paywall in front of their docs - but to funnel it via a 'donate with Visa/Mastercard' button?

Wikileaks doesn't even mention Bitcoin on their 'Banking Blockade' page either.


I'm not so keen to throw any BTC their way any more.

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[Severian]

I hate to break this everyone, but Wikileaks is a disinfo operation now.

[LegalEagle]

I hate to break this everyone, but Wikileaks is a disinfo operation now.

Yo dog, we heard you like conspiracies, so we put a conspiracy in your conspiracy so you can suspect while you're suspicious.

[Severian]

Yo dog, we heard you like conspiracies, so we put a conspiracy in your conspiracy so you can suspect while you're suspicious.

Very entertaining.

Meanwhile, Mastercard and Visa are happily accepted at Wikileaks while Bitcoin isn't.

[Bitcoin Oz]

I hate to break this everyone, but Wikileaks is a disinfo operation now.

Yo dog, we heard you like conspiracies, so we put a conspiracy in your conspiracy so you can suspect while you're suspicious.

They probably wont leak any more banking malfeasance since they are now relying on that for support.

[IntrepidMiner]

WTF are you talking about? http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate#dbitcoin

/thread.

Seriously though, they must have just been doing some maintenance or something, how long was the bitcoin donation option down again?

[WikileaksDude]

WTF are you talking about? http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate#dbitcoin

/thread.

Seriously though, they must have just been doing some maintenance or something, how long was the bitcoin donation option down again?

It was never down.

Its a shame that wikileaks did this on purpose.

HOW TO FIX: http://cryto.net/wikileaks.html

[Foxpup]

WTF are you guys talking about? I'm not seeing any paywall anywhere, and the donate page has a Bitcoin address, same as it always did.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

WOW! 1.6M Twitter followers. I'm willing to bet that a many of them at the very least saw the Bitcoin option on their donation page.

~Bruno~

[Severian]

Maybe. But all it takes is that the mainstream media selectively report little tidbits out of context. I've seen several British noisepaper stories where they sneak in some one-line quote and attribute it to Wikileaks, hoping that readers will swallow the whole article as gospel.

One of Julian's original supporters/advisors (and owner of cryptome.org), John Young, also states that Wikileaks is disinfo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pqk_j8-WQw

[Severian]

In that Youtube vid he also called it "a good organization".

Well, he was one of co-founders and owned the domain name.

I remembered Assange as the guy that released Strobe back in the 90's. It was one of my favorite toys.  I lurked the cypherpunks list but never posted. When he became Julian Assange:Ace Reporter, I kind of quit paying attention to him and the following that he was cultivating.

John Young's website still does a better and more consistent job of forcing transparency on centralized power structures. He hasn't tried to turn it into a cash cow like Julian did with wikileaks.

I guess an explanation of popular propaganda techniques is an important message in its own right.

If it were up to me, I'd start telling kids how it's done starting in elementary school.

[julz]

WTF are you guys talking about? I'm not seeing any paywall anywhere, and the donate page has a Bitcoin address, same as it always did.

Yes I know the donate page has a Bitcoin address as always (sad that it's not more prominent - but at least it's there)


This thread was about the paywall which *was* in place in front of actual document downloads.
It's been removed now. Possibly partly because many people were going apoplectic about it on twitter etc.

Wikileaks has tweeted:
"A tweet, share, wait or donate campaign is not a "paywall". You can read about our blockade and funding systems here: shop.wikileaks.org/donate "

This strikes me as dishonest - because when the wall was in place - it really did funnel you to a button for CC donation before you could proceed.
(well - apparently you could still get docs for free by disabling javascript)

There were no 'tweet share or wait' options at the time I looked at it - and no option to use Bitcoin (or any other payment method than CC) to proceed.

edit: There is an image of it in this article about the whole thing:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/10/wikileaks-implements-paywall-anonymous-does-not-approve/57839/

It even had pics of credit cards in the background - It almost looked like an advertisement for visa/mastercard. 

[LegalEagle]

Yo dog, we heard you like conspiracies, so we put a conspiracy in your conspiracy so you can suspect while you're suspicious.

Very entertaining.

I thought it was pretty clever, myself.