Cybersecurity

WikiLeaks Finds Snowden Cash Bump Elusive

The Snowden case hasn’t brought an increase in funding

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks to the media inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London on June 14Photograph by Anthony Devlin/AFP via Getty Images

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By Ben Moshinsky and Saleha Mohsin and Cornelius Rahn

July 12, 2013 at 12:21 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

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This article is part of the July 15, 2013 issue of businessweek.

The dramatic appearance of Edward Snowden on the world stage has proven only a temporary boost to WikiLeaks, the antisecrecy website. Donations to WikiLeaks surged after it offered financial support to Snowden, the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor who revealed secrets about U.S. surveillance practices. Contributions since have slid, according to the Hamburg-based Wau Holland Foundation, the main collector of funds for WikiLeaks.

Donations surged to €1,000 ($1,285) a day after Snowden stepped forward as the source of June newspaper reports about U.S. phone and Internet surveillance, according to Bernd Fix, a spokesman for Wau Holland. Daily contributions have since dropped to about €100. Although that’s about three times the donation rate before Snowden, it’s unlikely to put WikiLeaks in the black after two years of deficits, Fix said in an e-mail.