It emerged yesterday that the Department of Justice had obtained and served a subpoena requesting that Twitter disclose extensive details about the Twitter accounts of several people associated with WikiLeaks.

Glenn Greenwald:

The information demanded by the DOJ is sweeping in scope. It includes all mailing addresses and billing information known for the user, all connection records and session times, all IP addresses used to access Twitter, all known email accounts, as well as the “means and source of payment,” including banking records and credit cards. It seeks all of that information for the period beginning November 1, 2009, through the present. A copy of the Order served on Twitter, obtained exclusively by Salon, is here.

The Guardian has a handy timeline of the various attacks on WikiLeaks by governments and others.

The order served on Twitter was originally sealed, and barred Twitter from informing anyone about its existence—including the users whose accounts were being subpoenaed. Twitter, to their great credit, requested that the order be unsealed to inform the users and give them time to object.

As Greenwald points out, if Twitter had not made this request, we would have no idea about the existence of this order, and as it is, we have no idea if there were similar orders made to other companies (Facebook, Google, etc.) who may have complied without informing the users.

As always with the WikiLeaks case, it bears mentioning that WikiLeaks did not leak the diplomatic cables. They were leaked to WikiLeaks, not by WikiLeaks. Classified and secret documents are often leaked to the press, and WikiLeaks did what countless other news organizations have done in the past: they received information that some people didn’t want to be known, but they told people about it anyway.

It’s also worth remembering that WikiLeaks did not “dump” all 250,000 cables. They’ve released roughly 2000 cables, most with the help of major publications like the New York Times. Oddly, the DOJ doesn’t seem to be investigating those publications.

Anthony Hecht is The Stranger's Chief Technology Officer. He owns no monkeys.

6 replies on “Government Subpoenas WikiLeaks Twitter Accounts”

  2. I’d love to see just how much Hu Jintao openly laughs and mocks Obama during his visit, whenever Obama urges him to increase freedom of speech in China. Our moral high ground is long gone. Warrantless wiretapping, massive infiltration and surveillance of peace groups, and our unrelenting demonization of whistle-blowers of all strips. America, #1.

  3. I’m delighted and surprised Twitter stood up to the gag order. I remember back when the feds in their War on Terror went to all the wireless providers to get subscriber call records without a subpoena, every single one bent over for him except Qwest. It didn’t last long, and they have all our information now, but still, it was a shining moment.

  4. Contribute to Julian Assange’s personal legal defense fund at this address:

    FSI – Julian Assange Defence Fund”
    c/o Finers Stephens Innocent LLP
    179 Great Portland Street
    London
    W1W 5LS

    and to WikiLeaks itself at this address:

    WikiLeaks (or any suitable name likely to avoid interception in your country)
    BOX 4080
    Australia Post Office – University of Melbourne Branch
    Victoria 3052
    Australia

  5. It’s important to note that this is one of many areas in which the Obama administration is acting in the exact, authoritarian manner of the Bush administration.

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