Twitter Sues For Right To Make US Government's User Inquiries Public
By social media editor Melony Roy
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (CBS) -- Twitter is suing the FBI and the US Department of Justice in an effort to get so-called "transparency reports" declassified.
The government requires the company to keep secret what it's telling law enforcement, which the company says prevents it from responding to user concerns about privacy.
Twitter's lawsuit asks a judge to give it permission to publish its full "transparency report," which documents government requests for user information. The published report, released in February, does not include national security requests because Twitter has been prohibited from disclosing that information.
"It's not going to effect the average person in any way, shape, or form," says cyber security expert Dr. Rob D'Ovidio of Drexel University. "The average person isn't reading the transparency reports. All Twitter is doing at this point is asking for permission to publish more detailed data on what the government requests are."
The company is asking the US District Court of Northern California to declare this restriction unconstitutional because, the company says, they are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to their users.
But D'Ovidio isn't so sure.
"The absolute right to freedom of speech is not guaranteed when there are instances that freedom of speech would put people in grave danger," he tells KYW Newsradio. "That's when the government has the right to curtail speech."
The Department of Justice settled with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and LinkedIn earlier in the year, after those companies filed suit to be able to share more information with the public about what they are asked to turn over to the government.