Case to protect Wikileaks supporters' Twitter accounts lost

David Heath
Saturday, 12 November 2011 15:30

IT Policy - Regulation

Following the revelation early this year that US federal investigators had demanded details from Twitter related to the activities of three prominent Wikileaks supporters, court action was enjoined to stop the data release.

In pursuit of any possible connection between WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning (the alledged source of the Cablegate leaks), US investigators have been as secretive as they possibly can in their mission to compel various Internet services to release any useful information they might have.

Clearly, the intention is to prove that WikiLeaks' Julian Assange induced Manning to reveal the Cablegate material, because without that proof, there is little 'wrong' that Assange can be accused of.

Of course the reverse is also true - by demonstrating a connection, proof that Manning was the source is strengthened.

The three supporters, US resident computer security expert Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp, a Dutch computer security expert and Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic member of Parliament discovered the demand when Twitter successfully appealed the secrecy provisions of the US federal action.

Efforts to overturn the request initially failed and a recent appeal by Jonsdottir to the District Court in Virginia has also failed, Jonsdottir and the others are considering their options.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been supporting the appeal.

"When you use the Internet, you entrust your online conversations, thoughts, experiences, locations, photos, and more to dozens of companies who host or transfer your data," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "In light of that technological reality, we are gravely worried by the court's conclusion that records about you that are collected by Internet services like Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Google are fair game for warrantless searches by the government."

"With this decision, the court is telling all users of online tools hosted in the U.S. that the U.S. government will have secret access to their data," said Birgitta Jonsdottir. "People around the world will take note, and since they can easily move their data to companies who host it in locations that better protect their privacy than the U.S. does, I expect that many will do so. I am very disappointed in today's ruling because it is a huge backward step for the United States' legacy of freedom of expression and the right to privacy."