Twitter Sues U.S. Government Over User Data Requests

Twitter has officially sued the United States government. The world's largest microblogging platform took umbrage with the Justice Department's restriction on what the company can say publicly regarding the governments requests for user data for national security purposes. The company said that this violates the firms First Amendment rights.

Five other technology companies reached settlements with the government in similar suits concerning the permissible scope of disclosure for companies receiving such requests from government agencies.

Ben Lee, vice president of Twitter, wrote a blog post online regarding the company's decision to sue. "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--including what types of legal processes have not been received," he said. "We should be free to do this in a meaningful way rather than in broad inexact ranges."

Twitter has been noted for attempting increasing visibility between the company and it its users, pressing for a twice-annual transparency report. This is due to many users wanting to be assured that their privacy is a priority.

The dispute comes from tech companies now being able to report the numbers of requests they receive from the government in broad bands. Twitter wants to be able to disclose the exact number of national security-related orders received in any given category--even if it is zero.

This is due to the fact that unlike large e-mail providers, Twitter does not receive a huge number of these government requests because the majority of tweets on their site are all public. 

"Earlier this year, the government addressed similar concerns raised in a lawsuit brought by several major tech companies," said Emily Pierce, a government spokeswoman speaking to the Washington Post. The companies in question were Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Facebook, who all eventually withdrew their legal challenges.

"There, the parties worked collaboratively to allow tech companies to provide broad information on government requests while also providing national security."

Jameel Jaffar, deputy director for the American Civil Liberties Union, spoke with CNN, praising Twitter's decision and encouraged others to do the same.

"If these laws prohibit Twitter from disclosing basic information about government surveillance, then these laws violate the First Amendment," Jaffar said. "The Consitution doesn't permit the government to impose so broad a prohibition on the publication of truthful speech about government conduct."