Philly Company Accepting Donations For Wikileaks
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A mobile payment start-up company based in Philadelphia is making waves with its announcement that it is accepting donations for WikiLeaks -- even as the secret-leaking website is getting turned away from PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa amid US government pressure.
Thousands of dollars from hundreds of donors across the country poured in to Xipwire in the hours after the company's Twitter news hit the wider Web.
Founder and CEO Sharif Alexandre says his firm is not making a political statement.
"We felt that corporations should not decide who they can donate to and not donate to. We felt that was the individual's choice for them to be able to decide."
They're processing donations by text message and at Xipwire.com.
Alexandre says the argument that the secret state department documents could harm America's diplomatic efforts could be valid, but it's not up to the corporate world to decide.
"Let the argument itself win, in terms of people being able to debate one side or the other and not suppress the voices on any one side by cutting off the money supply. Let the voices on both sides of that argument be heard."
Reported By: Ian Bush, KYW Newsradio
