Twitter sues the US government

The lawsuit, which will be filed in in California, specifically against the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), alleges that the government is preventing Twitter from being transparent with its users.

“Twitter is a unique service built on trust and transparency. Twitter users are permitted to post under their real names or pseudonymously. Twitter is used by world leaders, political activists, journalists, and millions of other people to disseminate information and ideas, engage in public debate about matters of national and global concern, seek justice, and reveal government corruption and other wrongdoing. 

“The ability of Twitter users to share information depends in part on their ability to do to do so without undue fear of government surveillance,” the main document states.

“The nondisclosure and judicial review provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 2709(c) [used by the government for the nondisclosure] are facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment.”

In July, Twitter released a transparency report, which detailed how it had so far been prohibited from reporting on the scope of surveillance that Twitter was requested to comply with by the US Government and the above departments.

It is currently against the law in the US to release details on the number of national and foreign intelligence demands from the government.

However, Twitter contends this compromises the right to free speech, which is written in the First Amendment.

You can read the full document here.

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