Anonymous, the faceless grouping of hacktivists that leapt the to the support of WikiLeaks in its battle against US government suppression, has turned the tables and launched a bitter attack on its ally, declaring war in retaliation for its use of a new ‘paywall’.

The row first exploded on Wednesday, when Wikileaks and Anonymous clashed over the former’s decision to create a donation overlay page on its website Global Intelligence Files – something that the hacktivist group was quick to label a ‘paywall’, since it’s impossible to close it without making a donation or tweeting a message in support of the organization.

Anonymous has issued a demand on its Twitter page:

We call on @WikiLeaks to change their current set up to force donations. #InformationWantsToBeFree

To which Wikileaks has responded:

A tweet, share, wait or donate campaign is not a “paywall”. You can read about our blockade and funding systems here: http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate 

Since Anonymous voiced its opposition to the paywall, it appears that Wikileaks has added it to its Spy Files, Iraq War Logs, Guantanamo Files and numerous other pages too.

“When this ‘paywall’ appeared last night, there was a brief and intense exchange online between Anonymous and Wikileaks. Within two hours all of the ‘paywalls’ were removed,” wrote Anonymous in a statement.

“At that point Anonymous was willing to let this pass, for the sake of peace in the over all movement. But now tonight, as if taunting us to rage — the ‘paywalls’ reappeared not just on sections of the site but for every single file. Enough!”

Anonymous has a long history of activism on behalf of Wikileaks, which includes carrying out DDoS attacks against the likes of PayPal, Visa and MasterCard in retaliation for their decision to block people from funding the sites, and also attacking various Swedish and UK government websites in protest at those countries’ campaign against Julian Assange. Its collaboration with Wikileaks also extended to providing it with leaked information, such as the so-called Syria files it passed on earlier this summer.

But it looks as if Anonymous has finally washed its hands of Wikileaks:

“We have been worried about the direction Wikileaks is going for some time now. In the past year the focus has moved away from actual leaks and the fight for freedom of information and concentrated more and more on Julian Assange and a rabid scrounging for money,” it continued in its statement.

“The conclusion for us is that Anonymous cannot support anymore what WikiLeaks has become. What we will do is cease from this day all support of any kind for Wikileaks or Julian Assange.”