It provoked controversy when it first appeared on the net in December 2006 and still splits opinion. For some it is lauded as the future of investigative journalism. For others it is a risk.
In mid-March 2010 the site's director, Julian Assange, published a document purportedly from the US intelligence services, claiming that Wikileaks represented a "threat to the US Army".
The US government later confirmed to the BBC that the documents were genuine.
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[To] keep our sources safe, we have had to spread assets, encrypt everything, and move telecommunications and people around the world”
Julian Assange
"The unauthorised publication of Army and DoD [Department of Defense) sensitive documents on Wikileaks provides foreign intelligence services access to information that they may use to harm Army and DoD interests," a spokesperson told BBC News.
The site now claims to host more than one million documents.
Anyone can submit to Wikileaks anonymously, but a team of reviewers - volunteers from the mainstream press, journalists and Wikileaks staff - decides what is published.
"We use advanced cryptographic techniques and legal techniques to protect sources," Mr Assange told the BBC in February.
The site says that it accepts "classified, censored or otherwise restricted material of political, diplomatic or ethical significance" but does not take "rumour, opinion or other kinds of first hand reporting or material that is already publicly available".
"We specialise in allowing whistle-blowers and journalists who have been censored to get material out to the public," said Mr Assange.
It is operated by an organisation known as the Sunshine Press and claims to be "funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public".
Since Wikileaks first appeared on the net, it has faced various legal challenges to take it offline.
In 2008, for example, the Swiss Bank Julius Baer won a court ruling to block the site after Wikileaks posted "several hundred" documents about its offshore activities.
However, various "mirrors" of the site - hosted on different servers around the world - continued to operate.
The order was eventually overturned.
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