Amazon: Wikileaks banned from servers
Opponents of WikiLeaks in the U.S. are using technical measures to crack down on the whistleblowing platform: The internet company Amazon has banned WikiLeaks from its servers.
Amazon had initially granted Wikileaks hospitality on its own servers after the site was no longer accessible due to a hacker attack. However, this suddenly came to an end on Wednesday following pressure from US politicians on Amazon. "Wikileaks ousted from Amazon servers. Free speech in the land of the free", the revelation activists announced on Wednesday evening via the short message service Twitter, according to the news agency SDA. If Amazon has such problems with freedom of speech, "they should stop selling books", the activists criticized. However, the secret documents from US embassies around the world, which Wikileaks has been publishing since Sunday, are still accessible on the internet via European providers. The data is also available via the BitTorrent download service.
Experts also criticized Amazon's break-in: Under US law, Amazon would probably be protected from criminal prosecution in connection with Wikileaks, said lecturer at Stanford University's Institute for Internet and Society, Ryan Calo. "It would be a dangerous precedent if companies like Amazon took things off the web just because a senator or other government agency questioned them," Calo is quoted as saying by SDA.
Amazon had stopped the access after an intervention by US Senator Joe Lieberman. The non-partisan chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security threatened Amazon with a boycott, reported the British Guardian. Lieberman called for the platform to be denied the use of servers in other countries too. "Wikileaks' illegal, outrageous and reckless actions are putting our national security at risk and endangering lives around the globe," the senator said in a statement.
Following Amazon's actions, calls to boycott the online retailer were heard on the internet. Internet users in both the USA and Europe publicly announced that they would no longer be shopping at Amazon. The calls coincide with the important Christmas shopping period for Amazon.
Experts also criticized Amazon's break-in: Under US law, Amazon would probably be protected from criminal prosecution in connection with Wikileaks, said lecturer at Stanford University's Institute for Internet and Society, Ryan Calo. "It would be a dangerous precedent if companies like Amazon took things off the web just because a senator or other government agency questioned them," Calo is quoted as saying by SDA.
Amazon had stopped the access after an intervention by US Senator Joe Lieberman. The non-partisan chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security threatened Amazon with a boycott, reported the British Guardian. Lieberman called for the platform to be denied the use of servers in other countries too. "Wikileaks' illegal, outrageous and reckless actions are putting our national security at risk and endangering lives around the globe," the senator said in a statement.
Following Amazon's actions, calls to boycott the online retailer were heard on the internet. Internet users in both the USA and Europe publicly announced that they would no longer be shopping at Amazon. The calls coincide with the important Christmas shopping period for Amazon.
