M.I.A. Defends Julian Assange: “He Helped You To See Hypocrisy You Should Thank Him”

On Friday, the Swedish government announced that it was dropping its investigation into Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who is accused of raping two women in 2010. Assange, who has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, has been living inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 and a warrant is still out for his arrest in the U.K., according to The New York Times.

In response to news of the decision, M.I.A. posted a picture of Assange to her Instagram, writing a long defense of the WikiLeaks founder in the caption. She also announced that she has added Assange as a speaker at the upcoming Meltdown Festival in London.

"Every time I ve [sic] seen Assange I've asked him why he doesn't design an app for apple or sell out humanity and their data and rape them for all their money to be a rich and respected corporate humanity rapists," the message begins.

M.I.A. goes on to write: "Let's not ask questions about that because that’s normal but dismiss everything this guy did because it hasn't occurred to you that we are not in the 60s and 70s where they just kill you like Malcom x or JFK , they just ‘slander’ or ‘frame’ you mostly use sex or drugs or money to do it.”

At the end of the message, she says of Assange, "He helped You to see hypocrisy you should thank him and fast fix your system not hide him or the cracks he exposed.” Read the full post below.

Representatives for M.I.A. and Meltdown Festival were not immediately available for comment.