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Amazon.com Pulls Plug on Hosting Wikileaks

Amazon.com Pulls Plug on Hosting Wikileaks

Amazon.com has pulled the plug on Wikileaks, refusing to host the controversial site on its self-service web servers. The group confirmed the move on Wednesday with a tweet complaining about free speech.

The site, which just released a trove of sensitive U.S. State Department documents, took up residence on Amazon.com Inc.'s self-service Web servers after a rash of Internet-based attacks started Sunday against its regular Swedish host, Bahnhof.

The attacks made access to the site a hit and miss affair. The site was also unavailable for hours on Wednesday, as Amazon's servers stopped responding to requests.

The ousting comes as Sen. Joe Liebermann (I-CT) called on U.S. companies to boycott the site.

“[Amazon’s] decision to cut off Wikileaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies Wikileaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material,” he said in a statement. “I call on any other company or organization that is hosting Wikileaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them.”

Liebermann claims Amazon told him it intentionally pulled the plug on Wikileaks. "This morning Amazon informed my staff that it has ceased to host the Wikileaks website," he says in his statement. "I wish that Amazon had taken this action earlier based on Wikileaks' previous publication of classified material."

Amazon.com refused to comment on its relationship with WikiLeaks or whether it forced the the group to leave, however. The whistleblower site will now move back to a Swedish provider.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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