WikiLeaks goes offline after cash shortfall

WikiLeaks allows users to anonymously upload sensitive and confidential data

Online data-sharing site WikiLeaks has temporarily shut down owing to funding issues. The site said that it was short of $70,000 (£44,000) for its operating costs, and has asked users to donate.

WikiLeaks was launched in 2008 and allows users to anonymously upload sensitive and confidential data on government and private-sector entities.

Most recently, the site hosted the hacked email data of Alaska governor Sarah Palin, the membership list of the BNP and details on planned US copyright overhauls.

WikiLeaks parent company Sunshine Press said that the non-profit site is unable to take any corporate or government donations given the nature of its content, and must rely on user donations for funding.

"We have received hundreds of thousands of pages from corrupt banks, the US detainee system, the Iraq war, China, the UN and many others that we do not currently have the resources to release," the company said.

"Even $10 [£6.25] will pay to put one of these reports into another 10,000 hands, and $1,000 [£625] a million hands."

The company has posted links and information on the different ways in which money can be donated to the project.