Anonymous launch own 'Wikileaks' project

NewsPoint) –International hacktivist collective, Anonymous, have announced plans to launch their own Wikileaks style project dubbed 'TYLER'.

The group have explained that TYLER will be a 'secure, no cost and decentralized' online leaks release platform intended to circumvent problems inherent in WikiLeaks.

Speaking to the Voice of Russia, an unnamed hacker confirmed that the new whistleblowing platform - set to launch on the day that some believe the Mayans predicted the world would end (21 December 2012) - was being created because of the growing rift between Anonymous and Wikileaks after Assange and his colleagues began requiring payment to view documents that were previously available for free. There have been long been questions asked of Wikileaks and it's funding, Anonymous decision to distance itself is due to the lack of transparency, of which the very nature of whistleblowing stands against.

Anonymous released the following statement on October 12, after officially removing their support of Assange and Wikileaks:

Since yesterday visitors of the Wikileaks site are presented a red overlay banner that asks them to donate money. This banner cannot be closed and unless a donation is made, the content like GIFiles and the Syria emails are not displayed. ...We have been worried about the direction Wikileaks is going for a while. In the recent month the focus moved away from actual leaks and the fight for freedom of information further and further while it concentrated more and more on Julian Assange. It goes without saying that we oppose any plans of extraditing Julian to the USA. He is a content provider and publisher, not a criminal. But Wikileaks is not - or should not be - about Julian Assange alone. The idea behind Wikileaks was to provide the public with information that would otherwise being kept secret by industries and governments. Information we strongly believe the public has a right to know. But this has been pushed more and more into the background, instead we only hear about Julian Assange, like he had dinner last night with Lady Gaga. That's great for him but not much of our interest. We are more interested in transparent governments and bringing out documents and information they want to hide from the public. As far as money is concerned, we understand that Wikileaks lives from donations. And it is fine to ask for them as long as this is done in an unostentatious manner.

Anonymous have also claimed that they provided a considerable amount of information to Wikileaks, for which they received no credit, including over 2,000 emails included in the 'Syria files'.

It is worth noting that Anonymous is not a centrally organised group, it is a collective of individuals, and statements made online may not represent the views of the majority. However, the launch of TYLER suggests cohesion and a united opinion against Wikileaks and the need for an alternative.