In a bizarre move, Wikileaks has turned against one of its support groups in Australia, the Wikileaks Australian Citizens Alliance (WACA). In a tweet on Tuesday, the organisation labelled the group as a “front group”, despite being formed – according to WACA – as a “response to the Australian Government’s hostility towards Wikileaks”.
Australia: A front group, "akaWACA" fasely claims to be a support group for WikiLeaks. It is not endorsed and exists for its own reasons.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 9, 2013
The organisation also demanded they cease using Wikileaks’ name and logo in their materials and name, citing they are registered trademarks. However, while Assange has reportedly tried to register his name, there are no records of a “Julian Assange” or “Wikileaks” trademark in Australia.
@akaWACA Please remove the word "WikiLeaks" from your name and all misleading uses of the WikiLeaks logo and logotype.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 9, 2013
@akaWACA Yes. WikiLeaks is a publisher. It and Mr; Assange are registered trademarks in order to stop opportunistic misrepresentation.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 9, 2013
However, WACA has one high-profile supporter – Christine Assange, Julian Assange’s mother. In a series of 22 tweets, Christine called on Wikileaks and supporters of Julian to stop attacking WACA, saying that they were “instrumental in building & co-ordinating [Australia-wide] support” for Julian Assange.
The tweets were posted on the WACA account, as Christine closed her own personal account as a protest against, according to her, the “abuse of power & failure to be held to account” within the Wikileaks Party.
It appears this attack has its roots from the Wikileaks Party preferences fiasco. Members of WACA were involved in the creation of the Wikileaks Party, and two of its founders were also members of the National Council. Both, in addition to two other WACA members, publicly resigned from the Wikileaks Party after claiming that there was a lack of transparency and democracy. In an open letter:
As long as we believed there was a chance that democracy, transparency and accountability could prevail in the party we were willing to stay on. But where a National Council member begins openly subverting the party’s own processes, and asking others to join in a secret, alternative power centre that subverts the properly constituted one, this is not an acceptable mode of operation for any organization but even more so for an organization explicitly committed to democracy, transparency and accountability.