Twitter Ordered to Turn Over OWS Protester's Tweets

[Huey P. Long]

Source: NBC New York


Twitter Ordered to Turn Over OWS Protester's Tweets
Posted: 07/02/2012 1:20 PM

Twitter has been ordered to give a New York City judge almost three months' worth of an Occupy Wall Street protester's tweets despite the company's efforts to fight prosecutors' demand for the messages.

Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. also ruled Monday that prosecutors would need a search warrant -- not just a subpoena -- to get the final day's worth of tweets they seek from Malcolm Harris. That's because of a timeframe set by federal law.

Prosecutors say the messages could show whether Harris was aware of police orders he's charged with disregarding.

Twitter Inc. went to court after the judge denied Harris' own bid to challenge the subpoena earlier this year.

Sciarrino says he will review the material and provide relevant parts to prosecutors.

Harris was among more than 700 demonstrators arrested Oct. 1 on the Brooklyn Bridge.



Read more: http://m.nbcnewyork.com/nbcnewyork/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4BiY0nUi&full=true#display

[frazzled]

1. Well, it's evidence that could exonerate him

If this guy's defense is that he was unaware of police orders and for this reason did not obey them, then he will be found innocent of the charges that he disobeyed the law. Or not.

[Ian David]

2. Doesn't it depend on HOW he became "aware" of the orders?

If his only knowledge of the orders was because someone posted it to Twitter... well, you know you can't believe everything you see on Twitter.

Gordon Lightfoot Is Not Dead, Despite Twitter Hoax
http://www.spinner.com/2010/02/18/gordon-lightfoot-is-not-dead-despite-internet-hoax/

[Huey P. Long]

3. That gentleman you replied to is a good German. -eom

[Ian David]

4. "If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide."

I would be willing to bet the dude has NO IDEA himself whether or not he knew the police orders, and has no idea what was in his Twitter stream that long ago.

[Huey P. Long]

5. Democracy Now!

Twitter Ordered to Provide Info of Occupy Protester
A New York judge has ordered the social media site Twitter to hand over the account details and message history of an Occupy Wall Street protester. Twitter had been called on to provide prosecutors with tweets written by Malcolm Harris, a protester who was arrested with hundreds of others during the Occupy march across the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1. But Twitter had sought to avoid the order, saying it constitutes an undue burden and a violation of freedom of speech. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the ruling, saying: "Do individuals give up their ability to go to court to try to protect their free speech and privacy rights when they use the Internet? ... The answer has to be no."

U.S. Accounts for Bulk of Gov’t Requests on Private Twitter Accounts
Twitter has revealed U.S. law enforcement agencies account for the vast majority of requests for its users’ private information. Of around 850 government requests for user information worldwide, 80 percent came from the United States.

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http://www.democracynow.org/2012/7/3/headlines#738