Global hacktivist group Anonymous has leaked the 1990-2011 financial accounts of the governing Partido Popular (PP) [People's Party] to the Internet.
Recently, the judge overseeing the Gürtel case [1], an ongoing political corruption scandal in Spain that implicates PP members, asked for access to the documents dated since 1990 on the suspicion of illegal financing. The PP refused, claiming that they were only obligated turn in documents from the last five years.
On 8 July, 2013, Anonymous uploaded close to 5GB of data of the party's accounts, and at the same time made their financial data since 1990 public on portal anonyourvoice.com. The content rapidly spread via social networks, torrents, blogs and channels. Anonymous dubbed the leak:
Cables contables. PPgoteras. Lo que debería ser público, será público.
Accounting cables. PPleaks. What should be public, will be public.
This data, which was not public before, has now become available to the citizenry. Thousands of citizens through social networks have started to share and scrutinize the documents. You can follow the examination of these documents on Twitter under the hashtag #CuentasdelPP [2][es]:
@15MayoValencia [3]: ¿Quieres echar una mano con la #AuditoriaCiudadanaAlPP [4]? Descarga las #CuentasDelPP [5], analiza y comparte! http://fb.me/L8xmiwBh [6]
@15MayoValencia [3]: Do you want to give us a hand with the #AuditoriaCiudadanaAlPP [es] [4] [AIPP Citizen Audit]? Download the #CuentasDelPP[es] [PP Accounts] [5], analyse and share! http://fb.me/L8xmiwBh [6][es]
@LaliSandi [7]: Lo nunca visto: las #cuentasdelpp [2] explotan y se esparcen a pedacitos por la red.
@LaliSandi [es] [7]: Never seen before: the #cuentasdelpp[es] [PPaccounts] [2] explode and spread over the internet in little pieces.
@alvarinaitis [8]: #CuentasDelPP [5] Ya en serio ¿No va a dar nadie la cara durante el día de hoy? un comunicado? nadie del @PPopular [9] ni empresarios donantes?
@alvarinaitis [es] [8]: #CuentasDelPP[es] [PP accounts] [5] But seriously, Is no one going to show their face today? a statement? nobody from the @PPopular [es] [9] [People's Party] nor business sponsors?
The PP, which promised to submit a transparency law before the first 100 days of government but has still not formalised the legislation, has been exposed through the broadcasting of its financial management to the watchful eyes of hundreds of anonymous people. Public management is being examined.