Thursday, 9 October 2014

Twitter sues US government over spying

Twitter logo on screen

Twitter has sued the US government over surveillance laws.
Under current regulations, Twitter cannot reveal certain information about government requests for users' data relating to national security.
Twitter argues that this violates the right to free speech, as defined by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The firm said it brought the case in an effort to force the government to be more transparent about personal data requests.
"It's our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users' concerns and to the statements of US government officials by providing information about the scope of US government surveillance," Twitter's lawyer, Ben Lee, wrote in a blog post.
Twitter brought the action against the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a northern California court on Tuesday.
In April, Twitter submitted a Transparency Report to the US government for publication; however, so far officials have denied the firm's request to share the full report with the public.
That report includes specific information about the nature and number of requests for Twitter user information relating to national security.
"The US government engages in extensive but incomplete speech about the scope of its national security surveillance activities as they pertain to US communications providers, while at the same time prohibiting service providers such as Twitter from providing their own informed perspective as potential recipients of various national security-related requests," wrote Twitter.

No comments:

Post a Comment