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WikiLeaks funded via Pirate Bay-linked firm

Swedish micropay site Flattr, which was launched by The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde, remains one of the sole online financial lifelines for embattled whistleblower site WikiLeaks.

Published: 9 December 2010 11:51 CET
WikiLeaks funded via Pirate Bay-linked firm
The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde (left) and other Flattr staff

Credit card operators MasterCard and Visa and rival online payment system PayPal have shut down donations to WikiLeaks in the last week on the grounds that the site engages in illegal activities.

“As long as there is no sign that they are doing anything illegal, we will continue,” Flattr spokesman Niklas Silfverström told The Local on Thursday.

According to WikiLeaks, the site also accepts donations via transfers through an Icelandic bank, as well as a German foundation. But after Swiss/Icelandic internet company DataCell suspended an online donation system linked to Visa and MasterCard, Flattr is now the only way to make online donations to WikiLeaks.

Unlike PayPal, Flattr, which is based in Limhamn in Malmö in southern Sweden, charges a minimal €2 monthly fee, with which users can donate as little as €0.01 (9 öre, $0.01) – or less – to websites they want to support.

Sunde described the site as “not actually micropayments, it’s nanopayments” in an FT.com Tech Blog article in July.

“The idea had already been initiated in 2007, but the first release was in 2010 due to typical geeky laziness,” the company wrote on its website.

The site, named both for flattering someone and a flat-rate payment model, believes it is attractive to users who would otherwise hesitate to donate amounts under €10 since users can donate as little as €0.01 – or less.

The site now has 50,000 user accounts compared with 20,000 members prior to its open beta launch in August.

Traffic to the site spiked following the release of WikiLeaks’ Iraq documents in August, but Silfverström said it remains unclear whether the site has received more traffic after MasterCard, Visa and PayPal banned donations to WikiLeaks.

Users can deposit funds into a Flattr account through Visa, MasterCard or Nordea through MoneyBookers or PayPal, both of which charge fees.

When asked whether he thought it was ironic that Flattr is funded through the credit card companies, Silfverström said, “We are trying to find alternative means to do transactions and payouts, but we depend on the bigger organisations.”

“The difference is we distribute the money to WikiLeaks, but there is always the risk that we will be shut down too,” he added.

Last week, Flattr won a grant worth more than 320,000 kronor from Swedish innovation agency Vinnova to expedite the site’s international expansion. Silfverström said the funds will be used to develop newer services with Flattr and look at ways to expand.

Regarding Sunde’s activity on Flattr, Silfverström said, “He is involved on occasion, but he has other things on his mind right now.”

Sunde’s jail term for his involvement with The Pirate Bay was reduced to eight months at the end of last month.

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Dexit: One in 10 Germans in favour of leaving the EU

EU approval ratings in Germany have declined, but the vast majority of Germans are still in favour of staying in the EU, according to a new study.

Published: 26 April 2019 08:36 CEST
Dexit: One in 10 Germans in favour of leaving the EU
The EU flag flying outside the Reichstag in the German capital Berlin. Photo: DPA

Brexit hasn't quite happened yet, but some residents in Germany say they want to follow in the UK's footsteps and vote to quit the bloc.

A total of 10 percent of Germans are in favour of the country's exit from the EU – so-called 'Dexit' – according to research carried out by the European Parliament, reported the Tagesspiegel.

That's an increase of one percentage point compared to the last survey in autumn.

Germany's exit from the EU has been called for by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party's draft manifesto states that if the EU is not reshaped in line with the party's ideas “in an appropriate timeframe”, Germany must leave the bloc.

SEE ALSO: Far-right AfD to campaign on German EU exit

But most Germans are strongly in favour of the EU, despite a drop in approval ratings. The 'spring Eurobarometer' found that 76 percent of respondents in Germany considered EU membership “a good thing”. That's five percentage points lower than the last survey.

However, the figure is well above the European average.

The EU Parliament poll, which was carried out ahead of next month’s European elections, states that the majority of the bloc is happy to remain a member.

In an overview of the remaining EU27 countries, excluding Britain, 68 percent of voters would opt to remain in the bloc while only 14 percent would decide to quit.

Meanwhile, a total of 61 percent of respondents consider EU membership to be a “good thing”. This is one percentage point lower than in the autumn, when it reached its highest level in 26 years.

People in the Czech Republic (33 percent) and Italy (36 percent) were the least enthusiastic about the EU.

SEE ALSO: Voting in Germany – What you need to know about the EU elections

'Continued strong support for the EU'

The report's authors said the poll “shows a continued strong support for the European Union”.

They added: “Despite the challenges of the past years – and in cases such as the ongoing debate surrounding Brexit possibly even because of it – the European sense of togetherness does not seem to have weakened.

“One month ahead of the date originally scheduled for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU as laid down in Article 50, close to seven Europeans in ten said they would vote to remain in the EU if a referendum was held in their country.”

Meanwhile, only 38 percent of respondents said they knew that European elections were being held in May.

The European Parliament's survey was carried out across all 28 member states and interviewed 27,973 Europeans between February 19th to March 4th, 2019.

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