U.S. Govt subpoenas Twitter; Facebook and Google next

Yesterday Salon picked up a story from Birgitta Jónsdóttir, who is a member of the Parliament in Iceland, that she was just notified by Twitter that the U.S. Dept of Justice has subpoenaed Twitter in direct relation to her Twitter account.  

Twitter is being required to provide all information on her account including tweets, DM’s, email address(es), physical address(es), IP address(es) and any and all other identifiable information on her in accordance to the ongoing U.S. Govt investigation into WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

The subpoena to Twitter was “sealed”, meaning to be kept secret from all parties including Jónsdóttir. However, Twitter doing what I say is about all they can do and I give them huge kudos for doing it, requested the subpoena be unsealed. This request, which was granted by the judge allows Twitter to notify each person named in the subpoena that the Govt is requiring they provide this information. This lets everyone know who is involved that they are being subpoenaed so it gives them the heads up to get legal help, because they are going to need it.  Here is the tweet from Jónsdóttir that started this firestorm:



There were several Twitter users named in the subpeona. They are: @WikiLeaks, @rop_g, ioerror, @birgittaj, @JulianAssange_ and @SaveBradley (Bradley Manning).

The interesting thing about this is that the subpoena asks for all accounts registered and associated with WikiLeaks (those named above) to be provided as well.   I take that as if you are following, being followed, have DM’d, public mentioned, any contact with these accounts; Twitter will be providing that over to the U.S. Govt and it will be rummaged through to say the least.  

The other interesting twist to this story is that you can assume that Facebook and Google have also been subpoenaed by the U.S. Govt for this same information. There hasn’t been anyone coming forward in relation to their social platforms, so does this mean they are keeping quite and not requesting the subpoenas to be unsealed?  If Twitter was subpoenaed, you can bet your ass Facebook and Google were.  I bet a million dollars that Facebook won’t be requesting it be unsealed, I mean does Mark Zuckerberg really care about his users? I didn’t think so.   Let the saga continue.

Twitter Subpoena: