Wikileaks shut down
Wikileaks.org, a whistle-blower website where users can anonymously post confidential corporate and government documents (most notable for the leak of records from US prisons in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay) has been shut down by a California court.
No doubt there are shady CEOs and Bush Administration officials throwing parties already.
The story is being covered heavily in terms of the site's shut down, but not many people are talking about the worst part of the decision. The judge not only had Wikileaks removed entirely from its host server, Dynadot, but also ordered the company to turn over all records related to the site -- including IP addresses from anyone other than Dynadot who accessed the formerly-anonymous site.
Um, isn't that in violation of at least two Constitutional rights? Freedom of the press? Right to privacy? What??
The case went to court after Wikileaks posted hundreds of documents from a Swiss bank, Bank Julius Baer, and its offshore branch in the Caymans -- documents which detail the bank's alleged money laundering and tax evasion. Julius Baer tried negotiating with Wikileaks, asking them to remove the material, but the website refused... of course. So, the bank just went over their heads and took Dynadot to court. And Dynadot buckled... of course.
Not only did Julius Baer get the court and the company to shut the site down and hand over users' personal information, the bank further convinced the judge to put the domain name, Wikileaks.org, on lock down -- preventing it from moving to another server. Luckily, a few satellites of the website still exist outside the US (the most user-friendly Wikileaks still up is in Belgium).
The whole case brings attention to the fundamental flaw in the "freedom of information" we're told the internet's granted us. No matter how strict your site's moral code may be, your server can undermine it and sell your credibility off as soon as they come under pressure. From now on, you can only trust a site as much as you trust its host... i.e. not a lot.
Dynadot has been refusing comments to everyone, from the BBC to Frank151 (yes, we tried). No wonder; they essentially betrayed both their client and their client's customers -- to the point of violating those customers' rights.
It's inexcusable to host a site built on "uncensored ... untraceable ... [and] anonymous" public release of documents. The whole concept, the free & transparent distribution of information, is built on the safety of those three words. Dynadot allowed their client to be censored, its users to be traced and their identities to be revealed. Shameful.
So, in the interest of saying a big "fuck you" to Dynadot and Bank Julius Baer, you can read the leaked documents from BJB for yourself here, on the Belgian Wikileaks.
Get up, stand up -- read some classified shit.
You can also send Dynadot some angry email here... as if they'll listen.
