Judge in the case of Wikileaks: Twitter must disclose information

Interest of investigators can be more important than data protection needs

The online message service Twitter is handed over to the U.S. Department of Justice data on the accounts of three Wikileaks supporters - this statement has now confirmed a district judge in the U.S. state of Virginia. Stakeholders and the civil rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) expressed disappointment.

"With this decision the court says all users of online services, based in the U.S. that the U.S. government has a secret access to their data," criticized the Icelandic member of parliament Birgitta Jonsdottir, one of the three persons whose data is the U.S. Justice has requested. The decision was "a big step backwards for the legacy of the U.S. in the freedom of expression and the right to privacy."

Twitter Tweets should transfer and IP address to authorities

The dispute concerns in particular the IP address, which is the unique machine identifier for the publication of certain tweets (messages). Judge Liam O'Grady rejected on Thursday (local time) back in Alexandria in the U.S. state of Virginia, the Board of stakeholders that are associated with the IP address and private information about their whereabouts. An IP address could not be evaluated differently than a phone number.

Thus the district judge confirmed a decision by Federal Judge Theresa Buchanan in March this year. This was, with the transfer of data would not violate privacy rights.

Investigations should be more important than the interests of users

The judge leaned back, the demand of the plaintiff to disclose the statement to Twitter. The United States had a "compelling interest to protect their ongoing investigation" and that weigh more than the interests of stakeholders and the public interest, was O'Grady. From this disclosure, the plaintiffs hoped to evidence whether other Internet companies were ordered to disclose data. Twitter had informed its members from the statement of the judiciary.

Affected by the arrangement next Jonsdottir are also the U.S. programmers Jacob Appelbaum and Dutch Rop Gonggrijp. All three - as well as countless other Twitter users - have been mainly in the autumn of last year raised about the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and the publication of internal memos from U.S. embassies around the world. The U.S. government has been trying for some time to take action against Wikileaks, because it holds the secret revelations of classified diplomatic and military end Peschen reports about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan illegal.

In London, Assange fears that he might be on the order of the British judiciary to his deportation to Sweden and then expelled to the United States. The Swedish Justice investigating him for sexual harassment.