It's About Justice, Not About Money
A couple of months ago or shortly after the secretly-planned release from Belmarsh prison John Shipton, the biological father of Julian Assange (yes, they not only look alike; his son and him are close, very close in fact), said that the US government was attempting to fight "a pocket game" - i.e. financial warfare - against his son and his family. Over a week ago we recalled the "Banking Blockade" against Wikileaks because some people don't get it and continue to rely on rogue/untrusted parties. After some high-profile donations it seems like Assange and Wikileaks will cope financially, but they must take nothing for granted.
People in positions of power, however misplaced, always scheme and collude against critics and exposers. They do not tolerate scrutiny, as it becomes a risk of accountability. They might lose their freedom or their status.
Last year when we changed hosting (and belatedly upgraded the whole site) we chose a party we could trust and rely on - a webhost I'd been happy with since 2003 (for my personal site) vouched for them and recommended them. Choice of Web hosting (or webhosting) should not be done hastily - we spent days researching some. Wikileaks learned the hard way not to rely on GAFAM and it's quite frustrating to see how reliant it remains on Twitter (now X), i.e. the same people who butcher journalists who speak truth to power (Julian Assange's wife does or repeats the same mistake, plus she uploads to YouTube; Julian quit all of those things, as did his mother Christine).
The technique (or tactic or strategy) of online publication - whether through IPFS or Gemini or HTTP/S - is a subject that has long fascinated us because as long as we've existed and particularly since 2008 there have been endless efforts to take us offline because stuff we had published and/or kept publishing. We got accustomed to these "cycles of censorship". We always adapted.
Having money does not guarantee having speech; many people conflate wealth with the privilege to speak. In practice it does not work that way. One can get pro bono legal representation (Wikileaks received plenty of this, lawyers helped the Assange family in exchange for publicity) and at the end truth and justice tend to prevail.
Dwight Eisenhower once said: "Speeches are for the younger men who are going places. And I`m not going anyplace except six feet under the floor of that little chapel adjoining the museum and library at Abilene." Mark Twain joked that: "It is by the goodness of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either."
People who value free speech typically win because the arguments go in their favour. Saying that freedom of speech is just for "nazis" isn't a valid argument but a lousy non-sequitur. Even all the money in the world cannot defeat truth. █
