PayPal—PayPal froze WikiLeaks donation account under US government pressure
In December 2010, PayPal permanently suspended WikiLeaks' donation account, citing violations of its acceptable use policy. PayPal VP Osama Bedier acknowledged a US State Department letter influenced the decision. The financial blockade by PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and others destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks' revenue. Critics called it 'digital McCarthyism' and extrajudicial financial censorship.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Internet & Web Freedom | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Press Freedom | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.559 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.66)× agency (reactive ×0.75)
Evidence (2 signals)
PayPal VP admitted US State Department letter influenced WikiLeaks account freeze
PayPal VP Osama Bedier publicly acknowledged that a letter from the US State Department influenced the company's decision to freeze WikiLeaks' account. The State Department had characterized WikiLeaks' activities as illegal.
PayPal permanently suspended WikiLeaks donation account citing acceptable use policy violation
PayPal froze WikiLeaks' donation account on December 4, 2010, citing its acceptable use policy. PayPal VP Osama Bedier acknowledged the decision was influenced by a US State Department letter. WikiLeaks reported the financial blockade by PayPal and other payment processors destroyed 95% of its revenue.