According to a report just filed by the New York Times, Twitter has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Government in connection to the ongoing WikiLeaks investigation.
The U.S. government has asked Twitter to hand over private messages sent to and from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks staffers.
According to Twitter’s specific guide [PDF], “In accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, non-public information about Twitter users is not released unless we have received a subpoena, court order or other legal process document.” Such requests would only be valid if sent by law enforcement.
A court order [PDF] was sent to Twitter by the Department of Justice on Decemer 14, 2010. Stating that information held by Twitter was “relevant and material” to the Wikileaks investigation, the district court ordered the startup to hand over:
- session times and connection records
- telephone numbers
- credit card information
- e-mail and IP addresses
- correspondence and notes of record
As mashable reported, The court ordered Twitter to surrender the above information for accounts belonging to Assange, Wikileaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning (widely suspected to be the original source responsible for transfering cables to Wikileaks), and several Wikileaks associates and volunteers, including Birgitta Jonsdottir, Rop Gongrijp, and San Francisco-based programmer Jacob Appelbaum.
