A federal judge has recently permitted the U.S. government to access three Twitter accounts of WikiLeak’s most dedicated supporters. This has been a controversial issue in the social media arena because it seems to question users privacy rights.
A few months ago, the Department of Justice subpoenaed Twitter, requesting personal information related to the WikiLeaks supporters accounts. The three specific men targeted were Birgitta Jonsdottir, Rop Gongrijp and Jacob Appelbaum, who were the main contributors to the whistle blowing website that has release over 720,000 government cables.
Judge Theresa Buchanan supported the request of the Department of Justice and rejected the arguements of Electronic Frontier Foundation’s, American Civil Liberties Union, and the attorney’s representing the WikiLeak’s supporters. She ruled that the supporters first and fourth amendment rights “would not be violated by turning over Twitter account information to the government.”
WikiLeaks has made no objection regarding the government’s subpoena. However, Twitter has filed a motion requesting that they will not have to release the information of the users.
Currently this social media battle is for access to limited content such as email and IP addresses. But, it is speculated that private content such as messages and tweets could be requested as well. This will begin an even more intense battle because this ruling could determine whether or not the government as access to everyone’s Twitter account. If Twitter can’t protect users account information, will people still feel comfortable using its social media platform?
