This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
WikiLeaks Turns To Crowdfunding To Fight TTIP and TPP
Earlier this month whistleblowing platform, WikiLeaks, announced the launch of a new crowdfunding campaign to gain more information on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The campaign, launched on August 11, is designed to raise funds to offer whistleblowers a reward for any information about the impending trade, which has been negotiated in almost complete secrecy despite its global implications. To date, the campaign has raised $86,693.47 from 2,441 people, 79 percent of the $109,700 goal.
According to the campaign page, “The TTIP is a multi-trillion dollar international treaty that is being negotiated in secret between the United States and the European Union. It remains secret almost in its entirety, closely guarded by the negotiators, and only big corporations are given special access to its terms. The TTIP covers half of global GDP and is one of the largest agreements of its kind in history. The TTIP aims to create a global economic bloc outside of the WTO framework, as part of a geopolitical economic strategy against the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.”
This is the second such crowdfunding campaign WikiLeaks has launched this year. Back in June, the platform asked for $150,000 to reward whistleblowers who leak information on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which, according to the site, “aims to create a new international legal regime that will allow transnational corporations to bypass domestic courts, evade environmental protections, police the internet on behalf of the content industry, limit the availability of affordable generic medicines, and drastically curtail each country's legislative sovereignty.” WikiLeaks has already published three of the agreement’s 29 chapters, and so far, the campaign has raised $110,618.85 from 1,911 supporters according to the site. Some of the high profile supporters of this campaign include journalist Glenn Greenwald, Australian film-maker and investigative journalist John Pilger, Belarusian philosopher and theorist Evgeny Morozov, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, and of course, Assange himself.
According to WikiLeaks spokesman, Kristinn Hrafnsson, the platform turned to crowdfunding because they haven’t been able to get information on the agreements by any other means. He also noted that the group is not breaking any laws by pressuring people to commit a crime.
It will be interesting to see just who exactly will come forward to collect these rewards; however, whoever does should note that unlike government whistleblower programs, WikiLeaks has no power to protect against job loss or interrogation by authorities. In short, it may not be possible to distribute the reward money.
[original]
»
- advertisements -
TTIP is not primarily about a geopolitical economic strategy
TTIP is about megabusiness, by megabusiness, for megabusiness
TTIP is nothing else then a feverish wishlist of what huge stock-listed companies want since years, up to private courts ruling over national courts. in short: more
the result of an immense amount of money that flowed towards legions of lobbyists that have to do something to continue to stay in business
a mad dream, with still secret edges yet to be revealed. the very fact that something that has, eventually, to be discussed in public in Europe is still kept so secret just shows how detached some of the parties involved are with realities, particularly political realities across the globe
Yep. It's one of the most worrying developments in europe, more personal and detrimental to the future of my family than geopolitical shenanegans and NATO nutjobs bombing wedding parties abroad. It's totally insane in its scope and secrecy - an outright fascist, sorry, pernicious corporatist infiltration of democratic institutions that were already on the verge of being quasi-sinecure in the first place.
How the flipping hell anyone can think of giving Monsanto the reins to control european agriculture is beyond me. Big banks, big pharma, big agro, big criminal arseholes galore are waiting in the wings to fill up the EU with their shit and when they are finished, we'll all be paying for it with our health and sanity.
Crowdfunding , the new STock Market
Ashley Madison, wikileaks, both looking more like NSA formed platforms.