The corporate response to WikiLeaks Government and Internet workshop European University Institute, Florence 9 March 2011 Angela Daly, PhD researcher, EUI

US Embassy Cables leak Confidential correspondence between US State Dept and diplomatic missions around the world published by WikiLeaks in late 2010 A lot of criticism from US political class (government and opposition) Senator Joe Liberman's 'request' Corporations providing various services to WikiLeaks cut off these services in the wake of this leak, citing reasons including breach of service terms and copyright infringement e.g. Amazon, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Apple

Implications for free expression Corporations are private actors In the US, not only is First Amendment not enforceable against them, their conduct is also entitled to First Amendment protection In Europe, perhaps some positive, horiztonal effect of Art 10 ECHR, but in terms of enforceable right in these circumstances, not so robust and not strongly established Assuming free market, WikiLeaks can obtain these services from other providers – but what happens when monopoly or oligopoly? Case of the 'invisible handshake'? Demonstration of unaccountable corporate power on the Internet?