(Image Source: Forbes)

BY: EMOKE BEBIAK

Is it possible? Did Visa and MasterCard lift their ban on processing donations to WikiLeaks? For a couple hours on Thursday, it seemed the answer was yes.

Philadelphia’s FOX affiliate WTXF reports...

“WikiLeaks has reportedly started accepting credit card donations again. Payment processor DataCell says Visa and MasterCard were again processing payments to WikiLeaks...”

But it was too good to be true. As San Francisco’s KTVU reports, not long after the news broke, Visa put an end to processing donations.

“Visa says it has once again shut down its donation channel to Wikileaks after briefly accepting payments.”

So what was going on? IDG News talks to DataCell, the payment gateway handling donations for WikiLeaks...

“DataCell CEO Andreas Fink said his company had found a new payment acquirer, Valitor, willing to process payments to WikiLeaks, and accepted thousands of donations to the whistle-blowing website before running into problems around 3.30 a.m. Icelandic time.”

The problem the company ran into was, well, Visa. The Atlantic Wire clarifies Visa didn’t authorize the new gateway and soon shut down the operations. The company says in a statement...

“An acquirer briefly accepted payments on a merchant site linked to WikiLeaks. As soon as this came to our attention, action was taken with the suspension of Visa payment acceptance to the site remaining in place.”

But a lawyer representing WikiLeaks tells Forbes Visa must have known about what its payment processor was doing...

“When we signed this contract, it was clear to Valitor that this was for WikiLeaks donations, and they assented... Visa was saying that they hadn’t ended their financial blockade but people could see they could make payments. So it was very embarrassing for Visa and very hilarious.”

The brief ban on the blockade was lucrative for WikiLeaks. During the 12-hour window, the company reportedly made “five-to-six digit figures” in donations.