In 2008, Bank Julius Baer & Co. sued WikiLeaks in the United States over confidential documents concerning alleged offshore trusts and accounts handled through its Cayman Islands operations between 1997 and 2002. The documents were linked to former employee Rudolf Elmer, who was suspected of disclosing internal bank material. The bank argued that publication violated confidentiality, while civil-liberties groups and media organizations framed the case as an attempt to suppress information about offshore finance.
Judge Jeffrey White initially issued an order that required Dynadot, WikiLeaks’ domain registrar, to lock the wikileaks.org domain. The action disrupted access through the main domain but did not eliminate mirror sites or access by IP address, making the attempted restriction a prominent example of the Streisand effect. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union challenged the order on First Amendment grounds. Judge White lifted the injunction on February 29, 2008, restoring the domain, and Julius Baer dropped the lawsuit on March 5, 2008. The episode demonstrated how legal pressure on registrars can affect online availability while failing to contain replicated digital information.
