Twitter Sues FBI, DOJ to Release More Info About Government Surveillance

[Hissyspit]

Source: CBS News / Associated Press

@CBSEveningNews: JUST IN: Twitter is suing the U.S. gov't, says it's been prohibited from "reporting on the actual scope of surveillance of Twitter users."

@AP: Twitter sues the FBI, Department of Justice to release more information about government surveillance of its users: http://t.co/2MuenWo0Zh/s/XLHE

Twitter sues FBI, DOJ to release more info about government surveillance

CBS/AP
Oct 7, 2014 2:15 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- Twitter is suing the FBI and the Department of Justice to be able to release more information about government surveillance of its users.

Twitter Inc. filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a California federal court to publish its full "transparency report," which documents government requests for user information. The published report does not include national security requests because Twitter, along with other Internet companies, has been prohibited from disclosing that information.

The San Francisco-based social media company says it believes that it's entitled under the First Amendment to "respond to our users' concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance."

Twitter said in a blog post that it has "tried to achieve the level of transparency our users deserve without litigation, but to no avail."

"This is an important issue for anyone who believes in a strong First Amendment, and we hope to be able to share our complete Transparency Report," the company said.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-sues-fbi-doj-to-release-more-info-about-government-surveillance/

[postulater]

1. Well, Twitter is a person too. Why shouldn't (s)he have the same first amendment rights as ALEC?

[Luminous Animal]

3. I prefer to think of Twitter as a she because a friend, a woman, designed the logo.

[postulater]

4. Ok, it's a girl. And your friend came up with a winner.

I bet she can charge more for her talent now.

[Luminous Animal]

5. At the time she was doing a lot of work for Swatch and Lucas Films and making money

hand over fist. She only charged the Twitter guys $5000 (all rights) because they were friends of friends and just starting out.

She quit it all, went to Stanford to study art (as opposed to continuing with design) and now does art installations, lectures, and has won awards all over the world.

Before the internet became a predominately commerce medium, she was the senior designer for Atlas Magazine http://www.atlasmagazine.com/atlas/ which won 1997 and 1998 Webby Awards and is in the permanent San Francisco Modern Museum of Art.

She is brilliant.

[postulater]

6. Good for her! That's a nice success story.

And that makes you a One Degree Twit and me a Second Degree Twit since I know of you, right?

[Luminous Animal]

7. ! :) Indeed!

[MisterP]

8. neato: did she also do the fabulous Fail Whale?

[Luminous Animal]

9. Nah. But I love the fabulous Fail Whale.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. "Nothing is beyond our reach."

[True Blue Door]

10. If they really want to stir a shit storm, just release the info and dare the DOJ to prosecute.

One of the biggest problems we as activists have had in fighting the Patriot Act is that it didn't give us opportunities to disobey it - it mostly unleashed government institutions to do whatever they want without trying to force the people to do anything. That makes civil disobedience more difficult.

But where these records demands are concerned, executives of Silicon Valley companies are in a position to engage in civil disobedience. Of course they won't, because they're rich people, and rich people are generally selfish and cowardly even when they're on the right side.

[Ampersand Unicode]

11. You know what would be great?

Twitter shutting down once and for all like Lavabit. And Facebook, and Pinterest, and Instagram, and Vine, and YouTube, and the rest...

Except in this case, they would never open up again.

I relish the thought of all those wah-wah Directioners curling up in the fetal position. And any of the Kardashians going into withdrawal from having to quit their addiction to 24/7 attention whoring cold turkey.

It kills me how many people actually think the Internet is "private" and don't seem to get the irony of whining about NSA surveillance on social media websites. I'm going to probably get permabanned for this, but I honestly think Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of the exhibitionist starlets in that iCloud "scandal" are totally naive about this technology and really have no legitimate claim to recourse. You don't want someone to find something "private" about you online? DON'T PUT IT THERE. You don't go play in traffic and then blame a driver if you get run over with his car. It's not about "asking for it" -- it's about common fucking sense.