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Ask HN: Pledge that your startup will serve Wikileaks?

12 points by tibbon ↗ HN
Wikileaks is getting blackballed industry-wide now, between PayPal and Amazon both shutting them out.

Does anyone else want to pledge that if Wikileaks should choose to use the goods/services of your startup, that you won't turn away their business?

The startup I work for probably isn't applicable to the needs of Wikileaks (VoIP for gaming) but should they choose to use it, I will not turn them away without a court order. No logs would be turned over without a valid court order (and opps, we don't always keep the best of logs...), and the fact that they were clients to begin with would be kept in confidence.

6 comments

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randallsquared
Also, change your facebook icon to support Wikileaks! /s
derefr
I think this is better-phrased as a general principle: unless someone has been tried and convicted for a crime, and thus restricted in some way from using your service (put in jail with no Internet access, given restrictions to not use computers, etc.) then it's not your job to decide whether or not they can use your service, because that presumes them guilty. It doesn't matter if they're a "terrorist" or a "pedophile" or a "communist loonie": if they had actually done something wrong, the government would already be making sure they can't make use your service. For everyone except the criminal-justice system, a user should just be a user: no "is a criminal" bit required.
astine 

    if they had actually done something *illegal*, the government would already be making sure they can't make use your service.
FTFY

They could do something wrong without it being illegal, and a government can't act against them until they do something actually illegal. If I think that their activities are wrong, I shouldn't have to suffer them to use my services to continue those activities. I have a right to my freedom of consience.

stellar678
Don't you think these companies are turning them away not out of a moral or legal judgement on Wikileaks, but because they know that as USA companies they're likely to be subjected to legal shenanigans asking for donor lists, server logs, etc...? And if they were forced to comply with those types of requests, they could do a lot of harm to something they didn't intend to be involved with in the first place.
maukdaddy
Here's an idea - pledge your startup will make money and survive. Keep the wikileaks/politics bullshit out of your startup.