Visa and MasterCard WikiLeaks donations reopened

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Donations to WikiLeaks can now go through Visa and MasterCard, a partner of Julian Assange’s enterprise has revealed.

On 7 December, DataCell's payment gateway, provided by a company called Teller A/S, blocked Visa and MasterCard payments on the request of the credit card companies.

Last month, DataCell, a WikiLeaks partner, announced it was planning to file a complaint with the EU Commission on the decision to block payments to WikiLeaks. It also planned to commence a lawsuit in Denmark to claim damages.

Without contacting DataCell, it appears Visa and MasterCard have allowed payments to WikiLeaks, albeit through a gateway provided by a different company, not Teller A/S.

“We have observed that an alternative payment processor that we have contracted with, has in fact opened the gateway for payments with Visa and Mastercard, and now also for American Express Card payments, which is an option we did not had before,” explained DataCell chief executive (CEO), Andreas Fink.

“We choose to interpret this, as that Visa and Mastercard has in fact given in to our demand that the payment services was reinstated. In other words DataCell is happy to report that we are now able again to process donations to Wikileaks.”

Despite the developments, DataCell said it would go ahead with the lawsuit in Denmark and most likely still lodge a complaint with the European Commission.

When Visa and MasterCard started blocking payments to WikiLeaks, hacking group Anonymous responded by targeting the two firms, taking down the latter's website.

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