August 24, 2023. Wistaverse (www.wistaverse.com) the world’s first global platform for protest in the metaverse, announced today that the campaign to stop the extradition of Julian Assange will launch the first ever virtual political rally for Assange this Saturday, August 26th. The rally is part of the effort to prevent the founder of WikiLeaks from being extradited to the US where he could face a 175 year jail sentence for revealing information about the Iraq and Afghan wars. It is being organized by the Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign (https://dontextraditeassange.com), which is the official campaign of the Assange movement, working with Assange and his family.

John Rees from the Don't Extradite Assange campaign said, “This event in the Wistaverse is a valuable opportunity to unite people across the world who believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press to show their support for Julian and set a signal that will be an important precedent for human rights everywhere. No matter where you are in the world, you can virtually join this event.." 
 
The event will include the participation of and speeches by Julian Assange himself (pre-recorded), his wife Stella Assange, Kristinn Hrafnsson, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, and other high profile guests, including British politician Jeremy Corbyn.

The event will take place in the Wistaverse, the world’s first platform for virtual protest in the metaverse. The Wistaverse is a not-for-profit protocol located in the Sandbox on the Polygon blockchain. Users who organize protests do so on their own initiative, independent of the Wistaverse’s creators. The protocol enables a platform for protest for causes with universal importance and gives access for everyone to participate, regardless of geographical location or possible physical disabilities.

Jules, one of the founders of Wistaverse, said: “We are excited that the Don't Extradite Assange campaign has decided to use the platform to host such a key rally shortly after the launch of the Wistaverse this May. At that time, the inaugural protest was an event organized by Amnesty International in support of abortion rights worldwide. Now, we trust that the event this Saturday will set a signal and focus all eyes on freedom of speech to support that cause. The new Web3 technologies are enabling unprecedented participation and the opportunity for everyone to shape worldwide governance.." 

The rally will take place in a virtual auditorium designed to look like the Royal Courts of Justice in London where Assange is set to face his final appeal in the UK court system. It aims to build for a real life protest at the same venue when the court date is announced.

The speakers at the rally will appear either as characters inside the event or with filmed contributions shown on screens inside the arena created by the event designers. 
The Wistaverse uses metaverse technology to allow each individual attendee to be represented by an avatar that can hear the speeches and watch other material inside the virtual rally and interact with other attendees. It protects users’ identity and enables universal participation. The rally is open to anyone with a computer.

The rally will be on Saturday 26 August at 5pm BST/ British Summer Time, when information about how to participate will go live on the event’s dedicated website on the Sandbox.

For more information contact:

For Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign: media(at)dontextraditeassange.com or

Silvi: email: ps13(at)tuamail.com Tel.: +44-798-480-9125

For the Wistaverse: jules.wistaverse(at)gmail.com & Wistaverse(at)transformgroup.com  

For details, visit: www.wistaverse.com & Dontextraditeassange.com  

About Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign 
The Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign has been established in the UK by WikiLeaks in order to focus campaigning efforts on preventing the extradition of journalist and publisher Julian Assange to the United States where he faces 175 years in jail. Through his publications he has exposed war crimes against humanity, government corruption and mass surveillance.
Visit: Dontextraditeassange.com 

About WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks is a multinational media organization and associated library. It was founded by its publisher Julian Assange in 2006. WikiLeaks specializes in the analysis and publication of large datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying and corruption. It has so far published more than 10 million documents and associated analyses. WikiLeaks has contractual relationships and secure communications paths to more than 100 major media organizations from around the world. This gives WikiLeaks sources negotiating power, impact and technical protections that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to achieve. Although no organization can hope to have a perfect record forever, thus far WikiLeaks has a perfect in document authentication and resistance to all censorship attempts. “WikiLeaks is a giant library of the world's most persecuted documents. We give asylum to these documents, we analyze them, we promote them and we obtain more.." - Julian Assange, Der Spiegel Interview

Visit: Wikileaks.org

About Wistaverse

The Wistaverse is a multi-platform protocol and the first virtual, global platform for protest in the metaverse. The protocol uses blockchain as a shared tool for democracy. It is permissionless, censorship resistant, self-sustaining, and free from government interference. The $WISTA utility token raises decentralized funding during protests from the community for the community, to fuel its actions and impact. A fair moderation system will allow randomly selected $WISTA holders to ensure that no events taking place go against its security guidelines of “No incitation to violence, no racism and no sexism.." The Wistaverse is built on Polygon and currently available on The Sandbox.   
The Wistaverse is a voice for all in a world that is becoming ever more controlled by surveillance and in which democracies are increasingly fragile. At the same time, it is compliant just as it is an enabler of responsible protest.
Visit: www.wistaverse.com