The ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, February 15 in a hearing in a legal battle over the government’s demands for Twitter user records. The ACLU and EFF represent Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic parliamentarian and one of the Twitter users whose records were sought by the government.
On February 8, 2011, a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia unsealed motions filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, EFF, and others concerning government attempts to obtain Twitter account records about three individuals in connection with its WikiLeaks investigation. The documents were originally filed under seal late last month.
One of the motions seeks to overturn a federal court order requiring Twitter to turn over the private records of some of its users. The second filing seeks to unseal court records concerning the government's attempts to collect these kinds of private records from Twitter and other companies. The third motion was to unseal the original two motions and the hearing, which were initially sealed by the court.
In early January, the public learned that the Department of Justice had obtained a court order in December requiring Twitter to turn over the account records of five Twitter users: Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp and our client, Birgitta Jonsdottir. The federal district court unsealed that order after Twitter took steps to unseal it and to be allowed to inform its users that their information was sought by the government.
A public hearing on the ACLU/EFF motions is set for February 15 in Alexandria, Virginia.
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