Hacking group Anonymous is furious at WikiLeaks. On Wednesday, the  whistleblower's website put millions of documents behind a paywall. Upon clicking on any of Wikileaks' documents, visitors were shown a fullscreen overlay banner that asked them to donate money. The overlay couldn't be closed unless a donation was made or the video was shared on Facebook or Twitter. According to Anonymous, this contradicts the original idea behind WikiLeaks: providing the public with information that would otherwise being kept secret by industries and governments.

In a letter to WikiLeaks, Anonymous explains: "We have been worried about the direction WikiLeaks is going for a while. In the recent month the focus moved away from actual leaks and the fight for freedom of information further and further while it concentrated more and more on Julian Assange." Anonymous emphasizes that it strongly believes that the public has a right to know about the information provided on WikiLeaks and that it understands that WikiLeaks lives from donations, as long as this is done in a discrete manner. However, Anonymous states that it cannot support "the One Man Julian Assange show" that WikiLeaks has become. 

WikiLeaks responded on Twitter by stating that "a tweet, share, wait or donate campaign is not a paywall". Meanwhile, the overlay banner is removed from its website. Although, some hackers of Anonymous are still angry and tweeted that they withdrew their support to WikiLeaks.

Even if the way WikiLeaks asked for donations was compelling, the response of Anonymous is undue. After all, WikiLeaks entirely runs on donations by the general public. Besides, it removed the donation campaign immediately after all the commotion. 

Sources: Wired, Webwereld