Twitter vs. United States

On Tuesday, October 7 2014, Twitter filed a lawsuit against the United States Government on the notion that the government is violating Twitters first amendment right by imposing strict regulations against Twitter and what they can and cannot post when it comes to “national security related surveillance requests.”  Last spring Twitter, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and LinkedIn went in on a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice that stated “the tech companies are allowed to publish the number of data requests related to national security (such as National Security Letters or FISA Court orders) — but cannot divulge the precise number of requests,” according to Mashable.com.  Twitter mentioned that something like this may happen back in February when they first published a transparency report, which outlined why they were being prohibited from posting certain content.

  

When Twitter announced the lawsuit on Tuesday afternoon, Twitter’s lawyer took to their blog and said, “"It’s our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users’ concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance — including what types of legal process have not been received."  According to Mashable.com, Twitter and the U.S Government have been negotiating for months about what the outcome should be, and resorting to litigation was the last thing Twitter wanted to do, but the two companies couldn’t come to a sensible agreement.  This incident can be compared with the NSA surveillance programs leaking in correlation with Edward Snowden.  While the dust is still settling with that incident, I think it was a smart move to take litigation with the U.S. government in order to protect their reputation and themselves as a company.  The last thing Twitter wants to be seen as is collaborating with the government against their users.  I also thought this article was interesting because of what is  happening  currently with the Republic of Turkey and how they were intervening with social media sites in order to stop people from connecting with each other about the on-going situation.  I think it’s interesting that Twitter doesn’t have anything to say to the Republic of Turkey about them cutting off ways for citizens to talk to each other.  Regarding Twitter’s lawsuit against the United States government, several advocacy groups have come into the spotlight in support of Twitter by saying; “Twitter is doing the right thing by challenging this tangled web of secrecy rules and gag orders.”  I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out.  While I agree that people have a right to say what they want, I find it interesting that Twitter is taking such a big stand on the issue. Below is the actual tweet Twitter sent out affirming their official lawsuit against the U.S. Government.