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WikiLeaks has launched a crowdsourcing campaign to raise a €100,000 reward for anyone who can deliver “Europe's most wanted leak,” the draft text of the secretive TTIP trade deal.
Despite huge efforts by governments and big business to keep the details of pending international trade negotiations largely hidden from the public eye, WikiLeaks has already published leaks of the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Trade in Services Agreement.
Now, it is turning its sights to the multi-trillion dollar Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, known as TTIP, as the next target to make public.
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#WikiLeaks launches €100,000 crowd funding for hyper-secret #TTIP to be leaked: http://t.co/fQXx4rg3Vt https://t.co/MHasbRccRb #TISA #TPP
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks)
August 11, 2015
“The secrecy of the TTIP casts a shadow on the future of European democracy,” said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a statement. “Under this cover, special interests are running wild, much as we saw with the recent financial siege against the people of Greece.”
WikiLeaks is calling for pledges to raise the bounty for the leak, aiming to shatter the secrecy of the deal, closely guarded by governments and huge corporate lobbies privileged in the negotiation process.
RELATED: Putting Business First: How TTIP Changes the Rules of the Game
“The TTIP affects the life of every European and draws Europe into long term conflict with Asia,” said Assange. “The time for its secrecy to end is now.”
Since launching on Tuesday, the campaign has quickly attracted high profile attention.
Initial pledgers include former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, political philosopher Slavoj Žižek, investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, Australian journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, WikiLeaks' own Julian Assange, among others.
Transparency needs a helping hand in the Eurozone but also in trade (TTIP) negotiations that affect it. Join in! https://t.co/nry5VXbmgi
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis)
August 11, 2015
In less than 12 hours after its launch, the campaign raised over US$32,000 from close to 650 donors, bringing it almost 30 percent of the way to its US$109,700 goal, or €100,000.
RELATED: What Drives Governments to Keep TISA, TPP and TTIP Secret?
Massive lobbying in negotiations between the United States and EU has pushed the TTIP steadily closer towards becoming a reality. If successful, the controversial deal is set to be the world's largest trade agreement.
European Parliament gave the green light to the TTIP last month, approving a secretive draft version of the agreement and fueling public outrage over an agreement critics say will usher in an undemocratic consolidation of corporate power.
We need to either stop #TTIP or get ready for these sorts of 'corporate courts'. #noTTIP #stopTTIP #noISDS pic.twitter.com/qBAKsruT9y
— Global Justice Now (@GlobalJusticeUK)
August 10, 2015
Social and environmental rights groups argue the TTIP includes measures that grant special privileges to foreign investors that will undermine food and safety standards, public health, and efforts to tackle climate change, while forging closer links with the U.S.
According to WikiLeaks, the deal “aims to create a global economic bloc outside of the WTO framework as part of a geopolitical economic strategy against the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.”
