Amazon drops WikiLeaks site

• Tweet

SEATTLE, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Seattle-based Amazon.com has quit hosting the controversial WikiLeaks site after complaints from customers, officials said.

Online giant Amazon briefly hosted WikiLeaks after a hacker attacked its own servers, CNN reported.

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, formerly a Connecticut Democrat, but who now calls himself an Independent Democrat, was one of the first public officials to announce the change. He said Amazon officials told him Wednesday they had taken down the WikiLeaks site.

"I wish that Amazon had taken this action earlier based on WikiLeaks' previous publication of classified material," Lieberman said. "The company's decision to cut off WikiLeaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material."

WikiLeaks, and its founder, Julian Assange, have been under government fire for several months over its release of confidential military documents. The criticism intensified in the past few days with the release of thousands of sensitive cables from U.S. diplomats that portray some foreign leaders in a negative manner.

WikiLeaks critics said the release of classified documents endangers lives and had begun pressuring Amazon to drop the site, the report said.

WikiLeaks moved its site to Amazon's servers on Sunday, after it was the target of a denial-of-service attack from a hacker last week.

CNN said it had not yet received comments from Amazon.com or WikiLeaks.