This week we looked at censorship through the lens of “The Communist Manifesto” and WikiLeaks cases. The case I chose is about the bank blockade on WikiLeaks implemented by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Visa and Western Union.
WikiLeaks is currently unable to receive donations through all these sources and has stopped publications to fight back. They believe that the US government has pushed this onto these companies, but there is no evidence of this. Bank of America said that they felt that WikiLeaks is “inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments” according to an article in the New York Times.
This was a harder milestone for me because of the lack of an answer to why. There is no clear why given, just lots of speculation and vague statements. I did my best to try and come to as clear a conclusion as I could, but what I keep coming back to is if you can give money to the KKK through these companies, why not WikiLeaks?
Why censor more when people want transparency?
I’m not sure I believe in WikiLeaks’ goal, but I believe in transparency and honesty and I think that we all are better off when we feel like we are being heard and informed.
This timeline was a lifesaver in terms of understanding all the different events and when they happened related to the bank blockade.