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WikiLeaks Supporters' Twitter Accounts Subpoenaed

Posted by timothy on from the where-were-you-on-tuesday? dept.

HJED writes "The US Justice Department has served Twitter with a subpoena for the personal information and private messages of WikiLeaks supporters. There's a copy of the subpoena here (PDF); boing boing has a detailed article. Twitter has 3 days to turn over the information."

20 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. There is a threat to democracy! by owlstead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is a threat to democracy, quick, suspend all civil liberties!

    1. Re:There is a threat to democracy! by Steeltoe · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So, it's ok for authorities to lie, cheat, bribe, kill, torture, etc, and the very act of exposing them is a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment?

      It's also ok for authorities to use surveillance, covert-operations, false flag operations, etc., to ensure "peace and prosperity".

      You're so fucked.. Just watch your country go down in flames, and the same fucking politicians stepping up and "saving it", from the problems of their own creation!

      --
      http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
    2. Re:There is a threat to democracy! by chrisG23 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree with you and hate to be a nitpicker, but the Declaration of Independence is not part of US law. It is a statement of principles and reasons for the thirteen colonies rebelling against the British Empire. Legal rights start at and derive from the US Constitution. The Declaration of Independence was and is tremendously influential towards US political philosophy, so maybe what you meant to say is that "clearly the rights enshrined in US government philosophy are intended to apply to all humans." And yes, we have never fully lived up to our principles, and have done many things completely counter to them throughout history and up until now, and that it is the job, the duty of the citizens of the country, to keep the government continually in check, even when it means inconveniencing our lives.

  2. Shouldn't have a leg to stand on by walshy007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Individuals are entitled to say as they wish to each other in their private lives, the moment that is stopped in the name of 'national security' when they are discussing politics is when you should get the hell out.

    To where is the only real question.

    1. Re:Shouldn't have a leg to stand on by walshy007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd recommend a different action than "getting the hell out". Get elected and change the laws.

      Anyone who is ruthless enough to actually be elected normally does not deserve the position. To win you must be a master of both public speaking and doublespeak. After concessions are made to your ethics in order to gain the required popularity to win it is a slippery slope and by the time you get there (if you do) you become just as bad as those that were in power before you.

      Not saying I have the solution to it, only that there are another set of problems to think about.

    2. Re:Shouldn't have a leg to stand on by Torvac · · Score: 4, Insightful

      since he is just a corporate paid speaker like bush was, its no wonder. doesnt matter what president is "in power" if its still the same people around and behind him.

    3. Re:Shouldn't have a leg to stand on by hedwards · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you'll notice from the subpoena, 2 of the names are Manning and Assange, the others are ones which I'm not familiar with. While the subpoena is somewhat light on the details, I would assume that whatever argument was given for the request complied with the normal rules. Otherwise they would have sent in a national security letter and avoided the courts.

      Under the Bush administration, they wouldn't have gotten a subpoena. Because they believed the President had unlimited powers when at war.

      Not that I'm thrilled with his performance, but a lot of that is the fault of people like you for failing to comprehend that there are differences, even if they're not as substantial as they ought to be. And at any rate, this is still a lot better than what McCain was offering up.

      Additionally, he has limited power as the President, he's been trying to close GITMO, but without the ability to move at least some of the inmates to US courts for trial and possible incarceration, it's really hard to get other countries to buy into taking them off our hands. Which is totally shocking that they'd expect us to eat our own cooking.

    4. Re:Shouldn't have a leg to stand on by timbo234 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Australia is filtering the net

      No we're not, the necessary legislation was never even introduced to parliament. Even if it was, and somehow managed to get voted through, it would be killed in the senate due to the changes brought about during the recent election - the government got its arse kicked over issues like this.

      --
      Pre-canned Evolution Links for all those Slashdot holy wars.
  3. Icelandic MP supeanad by SomethingOrOther · · Score: 4, Informative


    Looks like they are requesting personal data of an Icelandic Member of Parliment
    I see a minor diplomatic incident on the horizon.

    --
    Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
    Don't believe what you read is the truth.
    1. Re:Icelandic MP supeanad by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uh, US diplomats were already tasked with illegally obtaining DNA and credit card numbers of other countries civil servants and politicians at the UN. That didn't seem to cause any diplomatic incident at all, so I really doubt the IP address of some Icelandic MP will even cause a ripple.

    2. Re:Icelandic MP supeanad by Husgaard · · Score: 5, Funny

      They do not have nukes, they have volcanoes.

      When they triggered one of them last year, it caused a lot more disruption to European air traffic than 9/11 did to US air traffic. And they know how to use their volcanoes right: During the incident Reykjavik airport was one of the few airports in Europe still open.

      I am pretty sure this was retaliation against the Brits abusing anti-terror legislation to freeze Icelandic assets.

      If you do not understand satire, you should not have read this...

  4. Twitter knew since December 14th by data2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Twitter has known about this for >3 weeks, but they were forbidden to tell the affected persons about it. It seems like to they had to go to court just to give them this information.
    News like this just makes me sad about the state of liberties in the USA.

  5. Hey Remember in those books... by Haedrian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When you have a facist/nazi/evil/whatever state you have people getting taken from their homes for not supporting the glorious leader/fuhrer/overlord/whatever and protesting?

    Good times.

  6. Re:Nothing to see here by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's actually a bigger worry IMHO than whatever random stuff is on Twitter. The flow of cables from Wikileaks has dried up. They hardly released any at all since the new year.

    Given that only 2000 of them have been released out of 250,000 they need to be stepping up the pace dramatically if they want these cables to ever see the light of day. But the exact opposite is happening. Is the biggest leak in history destined to actually be the smallest thanks to infighting and problems at Wikileaks, I wonder?

  7. I'd hand it to the Justice Department immediately by Gordonjcp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, at least, I'd hand them a gigantic picture of a whale. "Sorry, your legal standing is over capacity."

  8. What??? by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So they are demanding the personal information of a Non-US citizen, that's not in the country and did not access Twitter from within the United States? Nor did any of them commit any sort of crime on US soil. Could a middle eastern country charge my wife for wearing a bikini to the beach in Florida and then demand her personal information from Twitter?

  9. Does anyone need more reason to quit social media? by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Everything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law. The connections you make, the things you read, everything. The government has too much power and by indulging in these useless social media activities, people are making themselves into potential targets by participating in them. Say you were curious about wikileaks and subscribed to Assange's twitter. Well guess what, now the government knows who you are, you are on yet another list and only because you were curious about what he had to say.

    I'm not condemning social media as much as I am condemning this sort of behavior from government. But while the government IS behaving this way, people should be more careful in response.

  10. Rememeber 2007! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When Yahoo executives grilled by US Congress over giving up private info of email accounts to China, which was linked to two guys jailed for "leaking state secrets."
    May be twitter can use that as a defense?

  11. Re:The need for psychiatric evaluation of gov... by Cwix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's wrong with this picture?

    The fact that you posted shortened urls, that no one is gonna look at?

    --
    You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
  12. Re:The need for psychiatric evaluation of gov... by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think Slashcode should auto-detect these idiotic URL shorteners and either just refuse to accept them like it does for "all caps" posts and the like or preemptively down-mod the post by 2 points at least...