ONLINE PAYMENT SERVICE PROVIDER PayPal has suspended the donations account of the WikiLeaks website.

PayPal said in a statement that WikiLeaks had breached its terms of use.

The statement reads:

PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity. We’ve notified the account holder of this action.

Following the suspencion, WikiLeaks claimed via its Twitter account today: “PayPal bans WikiLeaks after US government pressure. Support us: http://wikileaks.ch/support.html“.

The AP reports that although PayPal was just one of several ways supporters could donate to WikiLeaks, it was probably the most secure and convenient way.

PayPal’s decision is the latest blow to the whistleblowing website which has been struggling to remain online since the US company operating its wikileaks.org domain name pulled its services. WikiLeaks directed its readers to wikileaks.ch in lieu of its .org site.

Last week, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands more US government documents via its website and press partners including the Guardian, Der Spiegel and the New York Times. The information included US embassy communication regarding the Irish public’s attitude to the use of Shannon airport for US military flights.

Earlier this week, Interpol issued a wanted notice for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for alleged sex crimes following complaints made against him in Sweden.