PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard suspend payments to WikiLeaks following Cablegate release
Beginning December 3, 2010, days after WikiLeaks began publishing approximately 250,000 classified U.S. State Department diplomatic cables, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Bank of America, and Western Union severed donation processing for the organization. PayPal acknowledged its decision followed a State Department letter characterizing WikiLeaks' activity as illegal. WikiLeaks said donations dropped by approximately 95%. WikiLeaks' Icelandic payment processor DataCell filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, which concluded in 2014 that the processors had not violated EU competition rules.
Dates: PayPal suspension December 3, 2010; Visa and Mastercard suspensions December 6–7, 2010; American Express, Bank of America, Western Union followed; EU antitrust complaint filed July 2011; EU finding circa 2014. Parties: WikiLeaks; Julian Assange; PayPal; Visa; Mastercard; American Express; Bank of America; Western Union; DataCell ehf; U.S. State Department; European Commission. What happened: As WikiLeaks released Cablegate material, major payment processors halted donation processing within days. PayPal Vice President Osama Bedier later acknowledged the decision followed a letter from the U.S. State Department asserting WikiLeaks' activities were illegal — though no U.S. court had so found. Processors' stated reasons: Violations of Acceptable Use Policies or operating rules related to alleged illegal activity. WikiLeaks' allegations: A government-orchestrated 'banking blockade' against constitutionally protected publishing activity by a journalistic organization not charged with a crime in the U.S. at the time. Outcome: WikiLeaks began accepting Bitcoin donations and diversified processors. DataCell's EU antitrust complaint was rejected. No U.S. criminal charges were filed against WikiLeaks for the 2010 publications at that time; Assange was later indicted under the Espionage Act in 2019 in separate proceedings. The blockade was never lifted by court order but degraded over time.