Twitter Appeals To Protect #OWS Protester

Image via CrunchBase

Twitter filed an appeal this week asking a NY appeals court to reconsider earlier rulings ordering the social network to give the government tweets and account information on two Twitter accounts believed to have been used by Malcolm Harris, involved in Occupy Wall Street. That lower court ruling came even though the government did not obtain a warrant to get the data. The lower court had also denied Harris the right to challenge the government request for data on his own, which Twitter asked the appeals court to reconsider.

In this weeks appeal, Twitter claims that the tweets are protected by the fourth Amendment. Earlier this year, Twitter moved to squash the government’s 2703 order to obtain the information, but in July, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. ordered Twitter to release the tweets and account information. The judge ruled that Harris had no expectation of privacy in tweets that were published. The American Civil Liberties Union plans to file an amicus brief backing Twitter.

Wired