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A hacker group that calls itself "Anonymous" says it took the Visa Web site down today in retaliation for the credit card company suspending payments to the WikiLeaks site.
Earlier today the group hit the MasterCard site with a distributed denial-of-service attack for the same reason, and it took down PayPal over the weekend. The MasterCard site was back up this afternoon.
"IT'S DOWN! KEEP FIRING!!!" the group tweeted on its Operation Payback campaign page.
Visa said yesterday that it was suspending payments to the controversial whistle-blower site, joining MasterCard and PayPal.
Operation Payback also said its page had been banned from Facebook for violating terms of use, and late afternoon the group's Twitter account was suspended as well. Attempts to reach the group's Twitter page displayed a warning that said "Sorry, the profile you are trying to view has been suspended." A Twitter representative declined to comment on the matter.
Facebook bans pages that are "hateful" or "threatening" or which attack an individual or group, according to a warning Operation Payback posted to Twitter. A Facebook spokesperson provided this statement: "Specifically, we're sensitive to content that includes pornography, bullying, hate speech, and threats of violence. We also prohibit the use of Facebook for unlawful activity. The goal of these policies is to strike a very delicate balance between giving people the freedom to express their opinions and viewpoints--even those that may be controversial to some--and maintaining a safe and trusted environment."
Meanwhile, Icelandic hosting company DataCell EHF said it will take legal action against Visa and MasterCard over their refusal to process donations for WikiLeaks. DataCell said that it had been losing revenue as a result of those actions.
WikiLeaks has come under attack since it posted its latest release of about 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables to the Web last month, embarrassing officials and incurring the wrath of foreign leaders. That release followed posting of cables related to the U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq earlier in the year.
As U.S. politicians cry foul and WikiLeaks' payment and infrastructure providers cut their ties to the beleaguered site, supporters have stepped up efforts to keep the site up, creating mirrors of the site, and enacting revenge on those companies that turn their backs on the project.
While that war is being waged, Julian Assange, the public face of WikiLeaks, is behind bars for accusations not believed to be directly related to WikiLeaks. He was arrested yesterday in London on allegations of sexual assault in Sweden. Assange says he and the Web site are being unfairly punished for telling people what their governments are doing.
Asked for comment, Visa said in a statement today that its processing network that handles transactions was functioning normally but that its Web site was down. "Visa's corporate Web site--Visa.com--is currently experiencing heavier than normal traffic. The company is taking steps to restore the site to full operations within the next few hours."
Update at 3:12 p.m. PT with Anonymous' Operation Payback account on Twitter having been suspended and at 3 p.m. to include comments from Visa and Facebook.
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Earlier today the group hit the MasterCard site with a distributed denial-of-service attack for the same reason, and it took down PayPal over the weekend. The MasterCard site was back up this afternoon.
"IT'S DOWN! KEEP FIRING!!!" the group tweeted on its Operation Payback campaign page.
Visa said yesterday that it was suspending payments to the controversial whistle-blower site, joining MasterCard and PayPal.
Operation Payback also said its page had been banned from Facebook for violating terms of use, and late afternoon the group's Twitter account was suspended as well. Attempts to reach the group's Twitter page displayed a warning that said "Sorry, the profile you are trying to view has been suspended." A Twitter representative declined to comment on the matter.
Facebook bans pages that are "hateful" or "threatening" or which attack an individual or group, according to a warning Operation Payback posted to Twitter. A Facebook spokesperson provided this statement: "Specifically, we're sensitive to content that includes pornography, bullying, hate speech, and threats of violence. We also prohibit the use of Facebook for unlawful activity. The goal of these policies is to strike a very delicate balance between giving people the freedom to express their opinions and viewpoints--even those that may be controversial to some--and maintaining a safe and trusted environment."
Meanwhile, Icelandic hosting company DataCell EHF said it will take legal action against Visa and MasterCard over their refusal to process donations for WikiLeaks. DataCell said that it had been losing revenue as a result of those actions.
WikiLeaks has come under attack since it posted its latest release of about 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables to the Web last month, embarrassing officials and incurring the wrath of foreign leaders. That release followed posting of cables related to the U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq earlier in the year.
As U.S. politicians cry foul and WikiLeaks' payment and infrastructure providers cut their ties to the beleaguered site, supporters have stepped up efforts to keep the site up, creating mirrors of the site, and enacting revenge on those companies that turn their backs on the project.
While that war is being waged, Julian Assange, the public face of WikiLeaks, is behind bars for accusations not believed to be directly related to WikiLeaks. He was arrested yesterday in London on allegations of sexual assault in Sweden. Assange says he and the Web site are being unfairly punished for telling people what their governments are doing.
Asked for comment, Visa said in a statement today that its processing network that handles transactions was functioning normally but that its Web site was down. "Visa's corporate Web site--Visa.com--is currently experiencing heavier than normal traffic. The company is taking steps to restore the site to full operations within the next few hours."
Update at 3:12 p.m. PT with Anonymous' Operation Payback account on Twitter having been suspended and at 3 p.m. to include comments from Visa and Facebook.
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