(2011-01-10) Govt Subpoenas Wikileaks Twitter Data

The DOJ subpoenaed Twitter data about multiple WikiLeaks insiders.

The court order came with a gag order that prevented Twitter from telling anyone, especially the targets, about the request’s existence. To Twitter’s credit, the company didn’t just open up its database, find the information the feds were seeking (such as the IP and e-mail addresses used by the targets) and quietly continue on with building new features. Instead the company successfully challenged the gag order in court, and then told the targets their data was being requested, giving them time to try and quash the order themselves.

The EFF and ACLU have gotten involved.

They lost the attempt to keep the data private, but at least were able to alert the parties being investigated.

Oct10 update: It looks like Google/GMail and Sonic Net received similar orders (only for Jacob Appelbaum?). Sonic.net, a smaller ISP who was also asked to hand over data related Appelbaum, tried to challenge the order in court, but ultimately lost and was to give up the information. It's not known if Google resisted the request, but both companies did try to ensure that Appelbaum could at least be made aware of the data retrieval.

Nov11 update: The judge (Liam O Grady) said that because Twitter users “voluntarily” turned over the Internet protocol addresses when they signed up for an account, they relinquished an expectation of privacy. Seriously? Where do they get these guys?