By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
A federal judge claimed Thursday that Twitter's lawsuit against the United States government over publishing national security requests may collapse because of the recently passed USA Freedom Act.
Last October, Twitter filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Justice Department over restrictions on what the company can voice publicly regarding government requests for individual user data due to national security concerns. The microblogging platform claimed that the legal constraints violated its First Amendment rights to free speech.
The company’s issues stemmed from provisions from the USA Patriot Act passed in 2001 that prevent and criminalize services like Twitter for revealing the exact scope of government request for user data, even if the number is zero.
“It’s our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users’ concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance—including what types of legal process have not been received,” Ben Lee, a Twitter vice president, wrote in a blog post announcing the lawsuit. “We should be free to do this in a meaningful way, rather than in broad, inexact ranges.”
But the case may have hit a snag because of the passage of the USA Freedom Act last week – legislation that sharply limits federal surveillance powers granted by the Patriot Act but critics charge it doesn’t go far enough. The new law is meant to limit the massive government surveillance operation on U.S. citizens revealed after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified documents.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, asked in a court order Thursday for arguments about whether the lawsuit should proceed in light of the new legislation.
"The court is concerned that the new legislation moots the claims for relief in Twitter's complaint," Gonzalez Rogers wrote in the order.
Twitter does not believe the passage of the Freedom Act affects the lawsuit, but the Justice Department argues that the legislation dictates a new process for publishing information about government requests.
