Receiving renewed support
The Swedish Pirate Party has filed formal charges against the country’s banks accusing them of systematic discrimination against whistleblowing Web site WikiLeaks, which has been denied donations by payment providers since 2010.
Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal, have blocked donations to WikiLeaks and other legal operations since 2010. “Banks have been a part of the network of these service providers, which means that the banks actively participate in stopping donations without legitimate grounds,” says Pirate Party founder Rick Folkvinge.
The charges have been filed with the Swedish Finansinspektionen, the authority which oversees bank licenses and abuse of position. “It must not be up to the individual payment provider to determine which organisations are eligible for donations. At the same time, these charges will bring clarity as to whether the bank regulations of today are sufficient, or if regulations need to be tightened to protect freedom of expression.” says the Pirate Party’s Erik Lönroth, who has been preparing the formal charges. WikiLeaks filed a formal complaint with the European Commission in October 2011, claiming that Visa and MasterCard are in breach of EU anti-trust laws.
But late last month the EU governing body signalled that it is unlikely to take action against the card schemes over their refusal to process payments for WikiLeaks after determining that the blockade does not appear to violate anti-trust provisions.
Whitepapers
Related reading
Central banks best suited to issue digital currencies
By Aaran Fronda A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that central banks rather than private ... read more
Instant payments: innovations inbound for corporates
In 2020, instant payments look set to continue their current trajectory to become the biggest trend in payments. While these schemes already offer numerous benefits to corporates, leveraging innovations such as APIs and request to pay will go some way to unlocking their full potential, argues Michael Knetsch
Obstacles exist for banks to meet ECB’s instant payments goal
The cost of joining instant payment platforms will be one of many hurdles banks and payment services providers must overcome to meet ... read more
Banks must be aware of “biases” in data used to train ML models
Financial institutions need to be conscious of biases in the historical data that is being used to train machine learning (ML) models, ... read more
