(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — According to several reports released late Tuesday and Wednesday, the much-discussed whistleblower website Wikileaks (www.wikileaks.org) has found new support, both ideological and technical, this week with the news that the Swedish political group The Pirate Party would host web servers for the Wikileaks site.
According to a PC World report, the party said on Tuesday that it would provide several new servers for the site, as well as provide the bandwidth for free. The servers will reportedly be online in a few days, hosted at an undisclosed location somewhere in Sweden. Some servers for the site are already hosted in Sweden by “bulletproof” hosting provider PRQ.
Wikileaks has been the subject of a lot of attention from the US government and military in recent weeks, after publishing tens of thousands of military documents related to the country’s campaign in Afghanistan. As PC World points out, the site has been taking steps to shore up its infrastructure, potentially in anticipation of efforts to shut it down.
Taking on a controversial client like Wikileaks – the regular subject a great deal of negative attention, and occasional takedown efforts, from a long list of governments and organizations – would be a difficult proposition for a traditional hosting operation. But for The Pirate Party, the deal is more akin to a political statement. The party’s goals, according to its website, include reform of copyright law, the abolishment of the patent system, and “respect” for privacy.
The party is regularly associated with piracy in the copyright-infringing sense (the group has some connections to the torrent tracking site The Pirate Bay, including offering up hosting services for the site in May following efforts to disconnect it), and is probably most comparable to Wikileaks in terms of its general anti-establishment tone.
The Pirate Party first offered hosting to Wikileaks last month, shortly after the documents were leaked.
The party is a relatively well-known entity in the European Union. According to PC World, it won 7.1 percent of the votes in elections for European Parliament last year, but has since seen its popularity fall. The article quotes market research firm TNS SIFO as saying polls for the upcoming Swedish general elections include the party among several other smaller parties that collectively have 1.9 percent of the vote.
PC World quotes a representative from The Pirate Party as saying it hopes its support of Wikileaks will help it to gather some of the 4 percent it needs to get into parliament.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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