My Google Alert for Wikileaks-related news brings me this item, from IT Security & Network Security News:
A federal court has ordered Twitter to turn over details of accounts tied to several WikiLeaks supporters as part of the government’s investigation into the whistle-blower site.
The U.S. Department of Justice obtained a subpoena for the micro-blogging site Dec. 14 requesting records going back to Nov. 1, 2009, that are “relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.” Among those targeted are WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp (whose name is misspelled in the subpoena) and Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking documents to the WikiLeaks.
Also named in the subpoena are computer programmer Jacob Appelbaum (identified by his Twitter username, ioerror) and former WikiLeaks volunteer and current Icelandic parliament member Birgitta Jónsdóttir, who wrote the following in a tweet: “just got this: Twitter has received legal process requesting information regarding your Twitter account in (relation to wikileaks).”
Jónsdóttir also tweeted that she plans to oppose the subpoena.
According to a copy of the court order , the government is looking for a variety of information, including session times and mailing addresses.
Wikileaks plans to fight the order (emphasis is mine):
In a statement Saturday, WikiLeaks said officials have subpoenaed details of its account from the San Francisco-based Twitter Inc., seeking private messages, contact information and other personal details of founder Julian Assange and three other people associated with the website.
WikiLeaks said that it suspected other U.S. Internet providers have been contacted by federal government officials as part of their investigation into possible charges against the website and its staff.
WikiLeaks vowed to fight the court order to release the Twitter account information, saying it amounted to harassment.
“If the Iranian government was to attempt to coercively obtain this information from journalists and activists of foreign nations, human rights groups around the world would speak out,” Assange said in the statement.
Washington has been considering possible charges against WikiLeaks and its staff following a series of spectacular leaks of frank and often embarrassing U.S. diplomatic cables.
A copy of the court order, posted to Salon.com, said the information sought was “relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation” and ordered Twitter not to disclose its existence to Assange or any of the others targeted.
Twitter, however, defied that part of the order — to their credit, not just because the surveillance targets’ right to be informed was thus protected, but also because informing the users of those Twitter accounts had the obvious effect of informing the general public of what the government is doing in our name, and what it in all probability is doing to users of other social networking and Internet services who might be going along with the government’s gag order (emphasis in original):
The request for information was supposed to be secret, but Twitter challenged that aspect of the subpoena in order to notify the users that their information had been requested, giving them a chance to file a legal challenge. That has led to suspicion that other Internet sites, namely Facebook and Google, may have received similar requests and quietly complied, reports the Guardian. … Some of the targets of the subpoenas were quick to praise Twitter. “It appears Twitter, as a matter of policy, does the right thing,” Gonggrijp said. “Heaven knows how many places have received similar subpoenas and just quietly submitted all they had on me.”
Carne Ross at The Huffington Post has some thoughts on the forest that should please advocates of balance and moderation:
Amid the sound and fury of the reaction to WikiLeaks, something is missing. Whether hostile or supportive, politicians and commentators on all sides have managed to miss the real point. The contents of the leaked cables should demand a deep reflection on our foreign policy. That this has not happened tells a sorry story about our very democracy.
On the right, and indeed center, the reaction has been hysteria. Politicians have lined up to decry the threat to US national security and even American lives, without offering a shred of evidence to confirm this claim.
Virtually no one, save the admirable Ron Paul, has stood up for free speech and the public’s right to know what government is up to in its name, or defended Bradley Manning’s right to the presumption of innocence, but whose involvement in the leaks is unquestioningly assumed by everyone.
On the left: blind support for Assange and WikiLeaks, despite the feckless irresponsibility of leaks that include detailed information on the defenses of nuclear sites, of minimal public interest but considerable interest to potential terrorist attackers. Meanwhile, many have confused the issue of free speech by supporting Assange’s transparently self-interested claims that allegations of sexual misconduct are part of a CIA plot. In Sweden? Come off it.
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