Judge: Twitter Must Reveal Wikileaks Information
Politico reports:
A federal court judge ruled Friday that Twitter must release the account information for three people associated with WikiLeaks requested by the government.
Lawyers representing the three people — WikiLeaks volunteers Jacob Appelbaum and Rop Gonggrijp and Icelandic Parliament member Birgitta Jonsdottir, a former volunteer — argued for the court to overturn the order and unseal other documents related to it during a hearing last month in Virginia.
The affidavit used to obtain the court order will also remain sealed, Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan wrote in the opinion.
“Petitioners’ argument ignores the significant difference between revealing the existence of an investigation, and exposing critical aspects of its nature and scope. The sealed documents at issue set forth sensitive nonpublic facts, including the identity of targets and witnesses in an ongoing criminal investigation,” Buchanan wrote. “Because the government’s interest in keeping these documents sealed for the time being outweighs petitioners’ interest in accessing them, there is no common law right of access to the requested judicial records.”
Buchanan granted a request to unseal documents about the litigation surrounding the order, however. She reasoned that it did “not reveal any sensitive investigatory facts which are not already revealed by the Twitter order.”
The U.S. government obtained a court order in December that required Twitter to release the account activity, including IP addresses and screen names, for Appelbaum, Gonggrijp and Jonsdottir. The subpoena was eventually unsealed at the request of Twitter’s lawyers.
“Twitter's policy is designed to allow users to defend their own rights,” San Francisco-based Twitter said in a statement released after the ruling. “As such, Twitter will continue to let the judicial process run its course.”
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