iPhone News Updated

WikiLeaks app dropped by Apple; WikiLeaks picked up

WikiLeaks app dropped by Apple; WikiLeaks picked up

Apple iPhone users may have plenty of amazing apps to choose from (did you see the one that translates in real time?!), but one app they no longer have: the WikiLeaks app. Just 10 days after the app was approved for sale in the Apple app store, the program has been pulled from the virtual shelves.

The unofficial WikiLeaks app allowed users to get live updates from the WikiLeaks Twitter feed, as well as search through the leaked cables. It cost $1.99, and its developer, Igor Barinov told Information Week, the app had sold about $1,000 worth.

The Post’s Faster Forward reports the app is still available for the Android phone. An Apple spokeswoman told the New York Times that the app violated their developer’s guidelines: “Apps must comply with all local laws and may not put an individual or group in harm’s way.”

The Twitter handle @anonops that has been used as a spokes-piece for Anonymous wrote, “Please people, open eyes. This is censorship, it has no other name.”

However, WikiLeaks can be found in another location: on the Reporters Without Borders site. The nonprofit organization that works to protect freedom of the press announced Tuesday that it will host a WikiLeaks mirror site. The announcement said:

This is a gesture of support for WikiLeaks’ right to publish information without being obstructed…. We defend the free flow of information on the Internet and the protection of sources, without which investigative journalism cannot exist.

The announcement also said that the attempts to shut down the WikiLeaks site amounted to an attack on a “democracy watchdog.”

[Thanks: http://voices.washingtonpost.com]

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