US-based Amazon.com stops hosting Wikileaks on its Web servers

WASHINGTON - America’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com, has stopped hosting whistleblower website WikiLeaks from its Web servers after being contacted by a US Senator.

WikiLeaks had turned to Amazon’s Web services after it claimed that its previous Web host, a company in Sweden called Bahnhof, was hit by computer attacks.

According to reports, staff from Independent US Senator Joe Lieberman’s office contacted Amazon on Tuesday asking why the company was providing Web hosting services for WikiLeaks.

On Wednesday, Amazon informed the senator’s staff that it had severed its ties with the organization.

The Seattle-based company said that it ended the relationship with WikiLeaks’ site “in the last 24 hours” because WikiLeaks was violating Amazon’s terms of use, the Washington Post reports.

The company did not specify the terms, but its acceptable-use policy says that Amazon can terminate service if it receives notice that the client is using the Web-hosting service “for any illegal purpose or in a way that violates the law”.

After the action taken by Amazon, Lieberman said: “I wish that Amazon had taken this action earlier based on WikiLeaks’ previous publication of classified material.”

“The company’s decision to cut off WikiLeaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material,” he added.

Meanwhile, whistleblower website quickly sent out a response via its Twitter site: “If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the first amendment, they should get out of the business of selling books.”

WikiLeaks has now moved its sites back to its servers in Sweden.

Earlier, in October, WikiLeaks had released a package of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs in coordination with major commercial media organizations.

In July, WikiLeaks released Afghan War Diary, a compilation of more than 76,900 documents about the War in Afghanistan not previously available for public review.

In April, the group had posted video from a 2007 incident in which Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. forces, on a website called Collateral Murder. (ANI)