Amazon: Gov. Did Not Push us to Drop Wikileaks
Computerworld reports:
IDG News Service - Amazon Web Services (AWS) kicked WikiLeaks off its servers for breaking rules designed to ensure websites use their own content and that it won't injure others, and not due to pressure from the U.S. government, Amazon said Thursday.
"AWS does not pre-screen its customers, but it does have terms of service that must be followed. WikiLeaks was not following them," Amazon said in a blog posting. "For example, our terms of service state that "you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content… that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity," it added.
A day earlier, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman said Amazon stopped hosting Wikileaks after being contacted by the U.S. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a committee Lieberman chairs.
Wikileaks drew controversy for the continued publication of classified U.S. documents, including videos and documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This time the classified documents in question were sensitive cables sent from and between U.S. embassies and the U.S. State Department. The cables contain embarrassing details about the U.S.'s relationship with governments around the world. U.S. officials had complained that information in the cables could compromise government personnel, while human rights groups had written to WikiLeaks asking them to exercise caution in the release and not name human rights defenders that might then face persecution by their governments.
