The Justice Dept (TheJusticeDept)
Why Twitter Was the Only Company to Challenge the Secret WikiLeaks Subpoena
Alexander Macgillivray" />Secret subpoenas* information requests of the kind the Department of Justice sent Twitter are apparently not unusual. In fact, other tech companies may also have received similar WikiLeaks-related requests. But what is unusual in this story is that Twitter resisted. Which raises an interesting question: Assuming that Twitter was not the only company to have been served a secret subpoena order, why was it the only company that fought back? The answer might lie in the figure leading Twitter’s legal efforts, Alexander Macgillivray (right), an incredibly mild mannered (really) but sharp-as-a-tack cyber law expert. Twitter’s general counsel comes out of Harvard’s prestigious Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the cyber law powerhouse that has churned out some of the leading Internet legal thinkers. Twitter wooed Macgillivray away from Google in the summer of 2009, and he now heads a 25-person legal team.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" Pub.L. 95–511, 92 Stat. 1783, 50 U.S.C. ch. 36) is a United States federal law which prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" (which may include American citizens and permanent residents suspected of espionage or terrorism).[1] The law does not apply outside the United States. It has been repeatedly amended since the September 11 attacks. §Subsequent amendments[edit] The Act was amended in 2001 by the USA PATRIOT Act, primarily to include terrorism on behalf of groups that are not specifically backed by a foreign government. An overhaul of the bill, the Protect America Act of 2007 was signed into law on August 5, 2007.[2] It expired on February 17, 2008. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 passed by the United States Congress on July 9, 2008.[3] §History[edit] §Scope and limits[edit] §Provisions[edit] K.
A Macgillivray (amac)
Lawmaker: U.S. subpoenaed Twitter information linked to WikiLeaks
Birgitta Jonsdottir: Says the U.S. justice department has asked for her private Twitter messages to be handed over. Icelandic lawmaker says the Justice Department has demanded information Birgitta Jonsdottir says Twitter informed her of the subpoena on FridayThe court demanded Twitter provide private information, she saysWikiLeaks has been publishing confidential U.S. government documents (CNN) -- U.S. officials have subpoenaed information on the social media website Twitter about Julian Assange and several other prominent supporters of WikiLeaks, an Icelandic lawmaker named in documents said Saturday. A federal court in Virginia has ordered Twitter to provide information for each account registered to Assange, U.S. Army Pfc. The order asks for subscriber names, user names, screen names, mailing addresses, residential addresses and connection records along with other information related to the accounts. CNN could not independently verify the documents. WikiLeaks in review
US subpoenas Wikileaks tweets, and why this could affect you
The US government has subpoenaed Twitter in a bid to support an ongoing criminal investigation into whether Wikileaks and people involved or connected to Wikileaks, including an Icelandic member of parliament, broke the law. According to Wikileaks lawyer Mark Stephens live on the BBC News a short time ago, it is believed Facebook and Google (see here) have also been contacted regarding Wikileaks members and potential whistleblowers. Update (12:20am GMT): Mark Stephens on the BBC News also makes clear that the court order will also cover the "600,000 odd followers that Wikileaks has on Twitter". The order asks specifically for names of those attached to selected accounts, user and screen names, and any registered mailing or postal addresses. The server logs which could identify the computer and geographical location of where even private messages were sent from have also been ordered to be handed over. According to CNN: Twitter is in a difficult position.
DOJ sends order to Twitter for Wikileaks-related account info | Privacy Inc.
The U.S. Justice Department has obtained a court order directing Twitter to turn over information about the accounts of activists with ties to WikiLeaks, including an Icelandic politician, a legendary Dutch hacker, and a U.S. computer programmer. Birgitta Jónsdóttir, one of 63 members of Iceland's national parliament, said this afternoon that Twitter notified her of the order's existence and told her she has 10 days to oppose the request for information about activity on her account since November 1, 2009. "I think I am being given a message, almost like someone breathing in a phone," Jónsdóttir said in a Twitter message. The order (PDF) also covers "subscriber account information" for Bradley Manning , the U.S. Appelbaum, who gave a keynote speech at a hacker conference last summer on behalf of the document-leaking organization and is currently in Iceland, said he plans to fight the request in a U.S. court. The order sent to Twitter initially was signed under seal by U.S.
Government-created climate of fear - Glenn Greenwald
One of the more eye-opening events for me of 2010 occurred in March, when I first wrote about WikiLeaks and the war the Pentagon was waging on it (as evidenced by its classified 2008 report branding the website an enemy and planning how to destroy it). At the time, few had heard of the group — it was before it had released the video of the Apache helicopter attack — but I nonetheless believed it could perform vitally important functions and thus encouraged readers to donate to it and otherwise support it. In response, there were numerous people — via email, comments, and other means — who expressed a serious fear of doing so: they were worried that donating money to a group so disliked by the government would cause them to be placed on various lists or, worse, incur criminal liability for materially supporting a Terrorist organization. At the time, I dismissed those concerns as both ill-founded and even slightly paranoid. So much of what the U.S. And these fears are well-justified.
Iceland summons US envoy over demand for MP's Twitter details | World news
The American ambassador to Iceland has been summoned to explain why US officials are trying to access the Twitter account of an Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks collaborator. Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, revealed last week that the US justice department had asked Twitter to hand over her information. The US authorities are trying to build a criminal case against the website after its huge leaks of classified US information. "[It is] very serious that a foreign state, the United States, demands such personal information of an Icelandic person, an elected official," the interior minister, Ogmundur Jonasson, told Icelandic broadcaster RUV. "This is even more serious when put [in] perspective and concerns freedom of speech and people's freedom in general," he added. Iceland's foreign ministry has demanded a meeting with Luis Arreaga, the US ambassador to Reykjavík. Jónsdóttir told the Guardian: "I am very pleased that we are going to have this meeting.
