The mutual romance between hacktivist group Anonymous and secret-spilling allies WikiLeaks is over with the former announcing: “[we] want to make clear that we still support the original idea behind Wikileaks: Freedom of information and transparent governments. Sadly we realize that Wikileaks does not stand for this idea anymore.”
Anonymous announced that it has dumped Wikileaks because the aforementioned original idea behind it has recently been overshadowed by the focus on Julian Assange.
In a message Anonymous explained the reason for the rift, citing disenchantment from the “One Man Julian Assange show” as the reason for withdrawing support:
“It goes without saying that we oppose any plans of extraditing Julian to the USA. He is a content provider and publisher, not a criminal. But Wikileaks is not – or should not be – about Julian Assange alone.”
“The idea behind Wikileaks was to provide the public with information that would otherwise being kept secret by industries and governments. Information we strongly believe the public has a right to know. But this has been pushed more and more into the background, instead we only hear about Julian Assange, like he had dinner last night with Lady Gaga. That’s great for him but not much of our interest. We are more interested in transparent governments and bringing out documents and information they want to hide from the public.”
Anonymous also criticised the obtrusive donations banner on the Wikileaks site, which could not be closed without disabling Javascript – something the casual user would not be aware of. While Anonymous does not disapprove of accepting donations, the invasive presence of the banner is considered an egregious action that is in direct opposition to the organisation’s fight for “freedom of information”.
Breakup song dedication:
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