In the wake of Wikileaks’ publishing of email archives from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, the global transparency organization is now claiming that its founder Julian Assange is being denied internet access by a ‘state party’.
Assange is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, as he has been since August 2012 when he was granted asylum there by the South American nation. Wikileaks hasn’t yet said exactly who it suspects to be behind the disruption of Assange’s internet connectivity, but has stated that it’s activated ‘contingency plans’ in response.
Julian Assange's internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 17, 2016
It also isn’t clear as to what those plans might entail, but it’s likely that they involve releasing or uploading confidential information secured by Wikileaks to trusted outlets.
The organization has been steadily releasing hundreds of emails from Podesta’s inbox, and shared the ninth of several parts of its archive just yesterday. When it leaked more than 2,000 emails last Monday, Clinton’s campaign dubbed Wikileaks a ‘propaganda arm of the Russian government’ that was working to help enstate Donald Trump as president.
Update: Wikileaks said in a tweet that Ecuador is responsible for cutting off Assange’s internet access:
We can confirm Ecuador cut off Assange's internet access Saturday, 5pm GMT, shortly after publication of Clinton's Goldman Sachs speechs.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 17, 2016
However, The Guardian noted that a source in the Ecuadorian government told the Press Association: “We don’t respond to speculation circulating on Twitter. Ecuador will continue to protect Julian Assange and uphold the political asylum granted to him in 2012.”
The plot thickens.
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