Dec 20, 2010 10:46 GMT  ·  By

Bank of America has joined the list of companies who refuse to do business with WikiLeaks, a decision that might attract the anger of hacktivists.

The ostracizing of WikiLeaks by financial companies as a result of "Cablegate," was started at the beginning of December by PayPal, who closed the organization's donations account.

PayPal cited terms of service violations as a result of "activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity."

However, not only wasn't WikiLeaks found guilty of something illegal by a court, but it hasn't even been charged yet.

PayPal's decision was soon followed by MasterCard and Visa, who announced blocking all credit-card-based donations to WikiLeaks for similar reasons.

Bank of America, the largest bank in the United States, was more careful about associating the word "illegal" with WikiLeaks' actions. It instead called them inconsistent with its own rules. According to the BBC, the company announced that it will block "transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for Wikileaks," because the organization "may be engaged in activities that are inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments."

Following the announcement, both WikiLeaks and Anonymous, the group of hacktivists who pledged allegiance to the whistlebrower site, advised people to close their Bank of America accounts and take their business elsewhere.

"We ask that all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America. [...] Our advise is to place your funds somewhere safer," WikiLeaks wrote on its official Twitter feed.

The bank's decision might also attract the anger of the Anonymous hacktivist group, a collective of Internet users brought together by common goals

Anonymous is known for organizing mass Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against whoever challenges their beliefs. The group claims to fight for freedom of expression and information on the Internet.

PayPal, Visa and Mastercard were all the target of Anonymous DDoS attacks following their announcements of severing ties with WikiLeaks.

Anonymous has since announcing giving up on DDoS in favor of other forms of protests, but the group has many cells which frequently split off and do things on their own.