DNS - Domain Name System Provider Expels WikiLeaks

Just a few days after Amazon kicked WikiLeaks off of its servers, another service provider has severed its ties with the controversial web site after it started publishing large numbers of leaked confidential U.S. diplomatic cables.

EveryDNS.net said that as of Thursday, at 10 p.m. EST in the United States, services to WikiLeaks were “terminated.”

EveryDNS.net said it had provided domain name system (DNS) services to the wikileaks.org domain name prior to that time. Its services are free.

It was the threat of continuing denial of service attacks against WikiLeaks that prompted EveryDNS.net to stop the service – not the content it was publishing, at least according to a company statement.

“The termination of services was effected pursuant to, and in accordance with, the EveryDNS.net Acceptable Use Policy,” the organization explains on its website. “The services were terminated for violation of the provision which states that ‘Member shall not interfere with another Member's use and enjoyment of the Service or another entity's use and enjoyment of similar services.’ The interference at … [issue] arises from the fact that wikileaks.org has become the target of multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. These attacks have, and future attacks would, threaten the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites.”

EveryDNS.net said that at about 10 p.m. EST, on Wednesday it sent a 24-hour termination notice via email to the wikileaks.org account. In addition to this email, notices were sent to WikiLeaks via Twitter and the chat function available through the wikileaks.org website, according to EveryDNS.net.

It adds that “any downtime of the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to use another hosted DNS service provider.”

WikiLeaks lashed out at Amazon for failing to support it, even though Amazon claims to stand for freedom of speech.

TMCnet reports that there was widespread speculation that U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (Indep., Conn.) was among those putting pressure on Amazon not to provide service to WikiLeaks. He urged other companies and organizations to do likewise.

There is speculation that not only were U.S. and foreign officials embarrassed by the publication of the leaked confidential documents but claims that making the documents public is putting lives at risk, as well as risking sensitive U.S. foreign policies.

WikiLeaks meanwhile says that it has some information it plans to release soon about a large bank, and has additional documents on many other businesses.

As of earlier this week, WikiLeaks was being hosted by another service in Europe, according to a report from the AFP news agency.