For Immediate Release
Rachel Myers, (646) 206-8643 or (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
Government Requests for Twitter Users' Personal Information Raise Serious Constitutional Concerns, Says ACLU
NEW YORK - According
to news reports today, the government has obtained a court order
requiring Twitter to provide information about some of its subscribers
who are associated with WikiLeaks. The court order was made public only
after Twitter successfully moved to unseal it.
The following
can be attributed to Aden Fine, senior staff attorney with the American
Civil Liberties Union Speech, Privacy and Technology Project:
"These government
requests for detailed information about individuals' Internet
communications raise serious First Amendment concerns and will have a
chilling effect on people's willingness to engage in lawful
communications over the Internet. There are serious doubts as to whether
the government's interest in obtaining all of this private and
constitutionally protected information is sufficiently compelling to
outweigh the constitutional interests at stake.
"Twitter should be
commended for moving to unseal the court order, but we are very troubled
that the order was filed under seal in the first place. Except in truly
extraordinary circumstances, Internet users should receive notice, and
an opportunity to go to court to defend their constitutional rights,
before their rights are compromised."
This is the world we live in. This is the world we cover.
Because of people like you, another world is possible. There are many battles to be won, but we will battle them together—all of us. Common Dreams is not your normal news site. We don't survive on clicks. We don't want advertising dollars. We want the world to be a better place. But we can't do it alone. It doesn't work that way. We need you. If you can help today—because every gift of every size matters—please do.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) conserves America's original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.