Twitter fights government subpoena demanding Occupy Wall Street protester info

In a motion (PDF) filed on Monday in New York City Criminal Court, Twitter lawyers argued the city's district attorney's office is overstepping its authority in ordering the tweets and other subscriber info of Malcolm Harris, whose handle on the microblogging site is @destructuremal. Prosecutors seeking the data failed to get a court warrant based on probable cause, making an order they obtained earlier a violation of federal law and the Constitution's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Twitter brief argued.

"If the order stands, Twitter will be put in the untenable position of either providing user communications and account information in response to all subpoenas or attempting to vindicate its users' rights by moving to quash these subpoenas itself—even though Twitter will often know little or nothing about the underlying facts necessary to support their users' argument that the subpoenas may be improper," Twitter's attorneys argued.

Read more...