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Mastercard or Visa to donate to wikileaks?

08 December 2010 1 comment

Retired member

A few thoughts have occurred to me.

Financial services firms cutting off a publisher for 'alleged' crimes where no evidence of any crime by the publisher has been presented, let alone were they convicted of any offence.

Mastercard and Visa need to question the aptitude their management have for the modern world. Do they think this will end well for them? Lawsuit perhaps? I'd suggest the boards examine their options.

As for the reasons they have given for terminating 'service' for wikileaks, I am sad to say there have and are many instances where US Senators and even Presidents would have far better qualified for service termination. Customers may not be as stupid as you think they are.

Perhaps Mastercard or Visa could provide examples of where they have taken this action in the past?

I'm not a lawyer but if I was I sure would be lining up this one.

What happens when donations start to flow through say the hawalah system? Now that would be interesting.

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Comments: (8)

A Finextra member

08 December 2010

Indignant?

I peruse Amazon (who shut down the wikileaks site) and purchase a book full of wikileaks with my Mastercard and then use Visa for another of the 100 odd wikileaks books for sale on Amazon.

Ponder that.

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Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

08 December 2010

I just checked, and "Assange" or "Wikileaks" doesn't appear on the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons ("SDN List") - so by what authority/request are PayPal, Amazon, Visa & MasterCard blocking him?

Does this mean that my previous Credit Card donations might now be subject to sub poena, and I might get a midnight knock on the door?

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A Finextra member

08 December 2010

Visa, Mastercard, paypal and Amazon have all profited and continue to profit from selling wikileaks.

Julian Assange has not.

Amazon almost has a monopoly on profiting from selling wikileaks cables.

The UK Govt is making a tidy profit on the VAT from Amazon UK sales.

Get your cables here from Amazon. Visa and mastercard accepted.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/WikiLeaks-documents-expose-foreign-conspiracies/dp/B004EEOLIU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1291803558&sr=8-2

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A Finextra member

08 December 2010

I thought I'd better add:

DONT PAY FOR THEM!

In case you didn't know there are hundreds of places you can still get them for free despite Amazon's (and I suspect a certain government hiring their servers for some 'browsing') best efforts.

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A Finextra member

08 December 2010

Opps I have to withdraw mastercard from the list - they seem to be having service issues preventing them from taking part in the wikileaks bonanza.

Will that do anything to their share price? Or visa? I mentioned the idea of shorting some last week.

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A Finextra member

08 December 2010

Heard a few good potential ad slogans for mastercard:

'Mastercard - the choice of every well-behaved slave.'

'If you want to become a slave use the Mastercard.'

Will post the visa ones later.