Twitter sues U.S. government over demand for records of anti-Trump account
12 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Twitter Inc said in a lawsuit on Thursday that it had received a demand from U.S. officials for records that could reveal the user behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump and that it was challenging the demand in court.
The lawsuit over the anonymous account was filed in federal court in San Francisco, where Twitter is based. [/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-lawsuit-idUSKBN1782PH?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social[/url]
Get fucked, just because they're critical of Trump doesnt give the US government powers to search their records or try to act against them because somebody said mean things to him online.
And it begins. if you against TRUMP your against DEMOCRACY. Fucking pathetic how scummy this White House. This is some Assad/Putin type bullshit. It starts with censorship and leads to death.
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;52067959]Get fucked, just because they're critical of Trump doesnt give the US government powers to search their records or try to act against them because somebody said mean things to him online.[/QUOTE]
You'd think it would be common sense, considering this isn't [I]supposed[/I] to be a totalitarian state.
We get closer to North Korea tactics every day. The only time I could see this would be warranted is if the account was making direct threats to the president's life.
I'm against Trump
Bring it cunts
[editline]6th April 2017[/editline]
brb I hear the door being banged on loudly
I really hope Twitter can win this, especially since it'll help establish a stronger legal precedent for the free speech rights of users on the net these days.
And also because Trump and his overinflated ego can[I] get fucked[/I].
[QUOTE=J!NX;52067976]I'm against Trump
Bring it cunts
[editline]6th April 2017[/editline]
brb I hear the door being banged on loudly[/QUOTE]
RIP J!NX, taken too soon by the Trumpstapo
Good. It's about time the corporations started sticking up for the people and not the government and their tiny, manipulative hands.
I hope this only serves to intensify the hatred trump receives on twitter. Not just from US citizens but from people around the world.
[quote]The lawsuit over the account @ALT_uscis, claimed to be run by at least one federal immigration employee, was filed in federal court in San Francisco, where Twitter is based. [/quote]
Just because I know this is important, I'm going to point it out. It doesn't really change anything and the government officials that ordered this can still go fuck themselves, but this is an account claiming to be a government employee.
The fact that this was a government-run account doesn't really change the gravity of what the Trump administration is doing. In fact, it may be worse. They're essentially trying to find any dissenters -- regardless of how or why they are dissenting -- to do... something to. That's fucking scary.
[QUOTE=geel9;52068231]The fact that this was a government-run account doesn't really change the gravity of what the Trump administration is doing. In fact, it may be worse. They're essentially trying to find any dissenters -- regardless of how or why they are dissenting -- to do... something to. That's fucking scary.[/QUOTE]
The prohibition on federal employees using their positions to distribute political speech [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_Act_of_1939"]did not start with Trump[/URL]. Federal employees are specifically prohibited from using their positions to endorse or oppose political candidates (with 'using their positions' including 'sharing their opinion while representing themselves as a member of that agency'), while employees of [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_Act_of_1939#Agencies_and_employees_prohibited_from_engaging_in_partisan_political_activity"]a number of agencies[/URL] are prohibited altogether from engaging in many forms of political activity. If this account owner works for one of those agencies and is engaging in political activism against the President, they may be violating the Act. If this account owner doesn't work for one of those agencies but is representing themselves as a federal employee in posting political activism against the President, they may still be violating the Act.
Before people go throwing emotional terms around, please read up on the Hatch Act and precisely what it restricts. Judging by the reactions in this thread it seems people are under the mistaken impression that government employees have the same right to freedom of speech as the rest of the populace, and that's not always true. If it turns out that the employee in question followed the requirements set forth by the Act then legally they're in the clear, but the government won't know that until they know who it is.
Good on you Twitter, I hope you win.
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