US court orders Twitter to hand over user data to US authorities

A US COURT has ordered Twitter to hand over account data relating to Wikileaks to US government authorities.

The account details involved are those of Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp, and Birgitta Jonsdottir, who have all volunteered for Wikileaks at some point. Jonsdottir is now a member of the Icelandic Parliament, but her Wikileaks past is coming back to haunt her in this latest US court ruling.

The ruling was sent down on Friday, despite pleas by the defendants' lawyers to have the order overturned. The court also denied requests to have court documents published, on the basis that the government's desire to keep them secret outweighs the defendants' wish to have them revealed. This means tha the affidavit that was used to obtain the ruling will remain sealed, according to Politico.

US authorities originally obtained the order in December, with a request for the identification of screen names, IP addresses and account activity relating to the three people in question.

Twitter said that its policy is to let users defend their own rights and thus it will comply with any court rulings. However, it said it will not hand over the data until the defendants' lawyers have had a chance to appeal the decision, which will be on the basis of alleged violations of the First Amendment.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union have both voiced their disapproval of the ruling. They are particularly concerned about the blocks put in place that have prevented the defendants from finding out who is investigating them. µ