Some groups and websites started accepting bitcoin at the start, like wikileaks which started accepting bitcoin as donations, there is also the infamous silk road deepweb site that sold all kinds of drugs and started accepting bitcoins. A lot of other criminals and criminal organizations started using it until today, a big part of bitcoin success is definitely thanks to criminals and even terrorists.
There was a time when Bitcoin and WikiLeaks helped each other to survive. WikiLeaks started accepting bitcoin in June 2011.
Satoshi personally ask Julian Assange to wait a bit to allow bitcoin more time to mature and establish itself as an alternative method of payment.
Bitcoin is the reason WikiLeaks is still alive today, as BTC allowed donations even despite global banking blockade.