Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has allegedly had his internet access shut down.
The Wikileaks Twitter account said that Assange’s internet access had been “intentionally severed by a state party.”
The organisation added that it had activated the “appropriate contingency plans.”
Wikileaks provided no information on who it believed was responsible for cutting Assange’s internet access.
Assange is claiming asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He is wanted by Swedish authorities for questioning over sex assault allegations, who refuse to interview Assange in the UK.
Assange and supporters claim that if he leaves he may be extradited to the United States, where he will face charges for the activities of Wikileaks.
Since Wikileaks predominantly operates online and Assange has few other ways of communicating with the outside world, losing internet access will make it difficult for him to lead the orgainsation.
Founded in 2006, the non-profit journalistic organisation publishes in full on its website confidential documents, particularly government files, which have somehow been obtained by anonymous sources.
Significant releases have included diplomatic cables relating to US activities in Syria, documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and secret files about prisoner in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.
Wikileaks has recently published a large number of internal emails from the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. These relate to Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. Podesta is a long-term associate of the Clintons and was President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff from 1998 until 2001.
It published internal emails from the Democratic National Committee which were said to expose the bias within the DNC against Hillary Clinton’s main rival Bernie Sanders.
In February 2016, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) ruled that the detention of Julian Assange is unlawful. The group ordered that he be released immediately and compensated by Sweden and the United Kingdom.
