Hi, an interesting article concerning this was published in the New York Times on monday: Twitter Shines a Spotlight on Secret F.B.I. Subpoenas http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/business/media/10link.html?_r=1 It seems that Twitter was only able to unseal the subpoena because of a case that was made public last August: Nick Merrill got a gag order by the FBI under the Patriot Act in 2004. He ran a small ISP, hosting NGOs, independent media and more. The FBI wanted information about one of his clients. With the support of the ACLU he fought the gag order, not being allowed to tell *anyone* that this was going on for six years. He was the first person to fight a gag order and only because he was partly successful it was possible for Twitter to unseal the subpoenas and let the account owners know about it. Nick told his story during the CCC congress in December in Berlin (27c3), see http://events.ccc.de/congress/2010/Fahrplan/events/4263.en.html http://mirror.fem-net.de/CCC/27C3/mp4-h264-HQ/27c3-4263-en-resisting_excessi... or http://mirror.fem-net.de/CCC/27C3/mp3-audio-only/27c3-4263-en-resisting_exce... or http://www.youtube.com/user/kkkwwwaaakkk#p/u/6/sDkHPNbCC1M Rop Gonggrijp, one of the people about whom Twitter is being subpoenad, held the keynote of the 27c3 and also talked about his experience with Wikileaks in Iceland, and why he withdrew from that work. At the time of the keynote he didn't know about the subpoena, I believe. http://mirror.fem-net.de/CCC/27C3/mp4-h264-HQ/27c3-4302-en-27c3_keynote_we_c... or http://mirror.fem-net.de/CCC/27C3/mp3-audio-only/27c3-4302-en-27c3_keynote_w... or http://www.youtube.com/user/kkkwwwaaakkk#p/search/2/ALNovMk3fC8 Two remarkable talks. Best A. Am 11.01.11 11:20, schrieb Patrice Riemens:

bwo IAC2009 list

original at: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/07/twitter/index.h... (http://bit.ly/fPXo7E )

The most interesting part is of course about all the other service providers which probably also have been 'approached' by the DOJ, and have not disclosed the such. Generally I think Twitter has acted remarkably well in this. See also the <<principal suspect>>'s blog: http://rop.gonggri.jp <...>

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