In December 2010, Visa, MasterCard and PayPal abruptly cut off donation payments to WikiLeaks, crippling its source of funds. Today, however, some more of those donations may be returning due to a decision at Iceland's Supreme Court. Last July, an Iceland court ordered Valitor — formerly Visa Iceland — to reinstate donations to WikiLeaks' payment processor DataCell or face a 800,000 ISK (about $6,830) per day. Today, the Supreme Court of Iceland has upheld that decision, and that fine, following Valitor's appeal.
Be interesting to see whether Visa will spend $204k a month in fines rather than lifting the blockade generally. Either way, we win.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 24, 2013
"We thank the Icelandic people for showing that they will not be bullied by powerful Washington-backed financial services companies like Visa. And we send out a warning to the other companies involved in this blockade: you're next," wrote WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in a press release.