guardian.co.uk,
Dominic Rushe, Friday 11 November 2011
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| A US court ruled Icelandic member of parliament Birgitta Jonsdottir must release details of her Twitter account. Photograph: Halldor Kolbeins/ AFP/Getty Images |
Icelandic
MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer Birgitta Jonsdottir has slammed the decision
by US courts to open her Twitter account to the US authorities and is taking
her case to the Council of Europe.
On Thursday
a US judge ruled Twitter must release the details of her account and those of
two other Twitter users linked to WikiLeaks. Jonsdottir learned in January that
her Twitter account was under scrutiny from the Justice Department because of
her involvement last year with WikiLeaks' release of a video showing a US
military helicopter shooting two Reuters reporters in Iraq. She believes the US
authorities want to use her information to try and build a case against
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
"This
is a huge blow for everybody that uses social media," said Jonsdottir.
"We have to have the same civil rights online as we have offline. Imagine
if the US authorities wanted to do a house search at my home, go through my
private papers. There would be a hell of a fight. It's absolutely
unacceptable."
She said
she would press for the Council of Europe to act on the case, which she
believes sets a worrying precedent for private citizens and politicians across
the world.
Last month
the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which represents MPs from 157 countries,
unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the move by the Justice Department.
The IPU said the move threatened free speech and suggested it could violate
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which upholds the
right of everyone to freedom of opinion and expression.
"Members
of parliament are elected by people to represent them in parliament. In their
daily work they legislate and they hold the governments to account. They are
unable to perform these duties if they cannot receive and exchange information
freely without fear of intimidation," wrote the IPU.
Jonsdottir's
account was targeted alongside Seattle-based WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob
Appelbaum and Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp. The order also sought records
relating to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and alleged WikiLeaks source
private Bradley Manning.
This is the
second court victory for the US authorities in a case that has alarmed privacy
and free speech advocates; in part because the inquiries' targets might never
have known they were being investigated had Twitter not challenged the
subpoenas.
The Justice
Department also sought the information without a search warrant. US authorities
used a 1994 law called the stored communications act to demand that Twitter
provide the internet protocol addresses of users, a move that would give the
location of the computer they used to log onto the internet. They also asked
for bank account details, user names, screen names or other identities, mailing
and other addresses.
The
petitioners argued that the order suppressed their right to free speech and
that their internet protocol addresses should be considered private
information. They also argued the demand for information was too broad and
unrelated to WikiLeaks.
Judge Liam
O'Grady disagreed. In his opinion, "the information sought was clearly
material to establishing key facts related to an ongoing investigation and
would have assisted a grand jury in conducting an inquiry into the particular
matters under investigation."
The Twitter
users "voluntarily" turned over the internet protocol addresses when
they signed up for an account and relinquished an expectation of privacy, he
ruled.
"Petitioners
knew or should have known that their IP information was subject to examination
by Twitter, so they had a lessened expectation of privacy in that information,
particularly in light of their apparent consent to the Twitter terms of service
and privacy policy," Judge O'Grady wrote. He also dismissed a petition to
unseal the Justice Department's explanation for why it sought the account
information.
The fight
comes amid widening concerns about online privacy. Facebook is expected to
revamp its privacy rules after widespread criticism. Twitter too has become an
increasing concern for privacy advocates.
"I
want everybody to be fully aware of the rights we apparently forfeit every time
we sign one of these user agreements that no one reads," said Jonsdottir.
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