Twitter sues FBI DOJ challenging restrictions on surveillance Google FB may join

Twitter sues FBI DOJ challenging restrictions on surveillance Google FB may join

Social Media company Twitter filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a California federal court to publish its full "transparency report," which documents government requests for user information

Twitter in its blog post said following
[As part of our latest transparency report released in July, we described how we were being prohibited from reporting on the actual scope of surveillance of Twitter users by the U.S. government.

Our ability to speak has been restricted by laws that prohibit and even criminalize a service provider like us from disclosing the exact number of national security letters (“NSLs”) and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) court orders received — even if that number is zero.

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.
We should be free to do this in a meaningful way, rather than in broad, inexact ranges.

So, today, we have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to publish our full Transparency Report, and asking the court to declare these restrictions on our ability to speak about government surveillance as unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is already considering the constitutionality of the non-disclosure provisions of the NSL law later this week.

This is an important issue for anyone who believes in a strong First Amendment, and we hope to be able to share our complete Transparency Report. ]

What twitter is doing it’s a right thing.
It’s against the First Amendment
Its right of the users as well as twitter , also it is the duty of twitter to inform what is happening , must inform about government restrictions and gag orders
If these laws prohibit Twitter from disclosing basic information about government surveillance, then these laws violate the First Amendment

Let us hope other companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo will join the Twitter and make it a Global fight

Reality views by sm –

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Tags – Twitter Sues FBI