Twitter Ordered to Yield Data in WikiLeaks Case.
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Twitter, the popular microblogging platform, must reveal information about three of its account holders who are under investigation for their possible links to the WikiLeaks whistle-blower site.
The case has become a flash point for online privacy and speech, in part because the Justice Department sought the information without a search warrant last year. Instead, on the basis of a 1994 law called the Stored Communications Act, the government demanded that Twitter provide the Internet protocol addresses of three of its users, among other things. An Internet protocol address identifies and gives the location of a computer used to log onto the Internet.
John Robb of Global Guerrillas comments:
The big problem with the warrantless access to domestic digital info is that it rapidly leads to the automated retrieval of it. Once it can be pulled automatically w/o judicial intervention or degree of specificity (read delay), then the volume of data acquired will grow without limit. In Communist Germany, the Stasi was responsible for building files on people that didn't fit in. They sifted and sorted their personal correspondence to find patterns. In the US today, that task is done by millions of tiny software bots that work 24x7x365. Watching you. Waiting for you to fit a "signature." Given the increasing disconnect between the governors and the governed, this vision of the future is not paranoia, it's common sense.
8 comments:
Nobody wants it, Dutchman but can you see any way it can be avoided? The bastards are charging headlong down the path to either a gray concrete future that would make the Soviet Union look like Disneyland or revolution.
Do you disagree with my analysis?
Now wait a minute! I'm sure those "really good guys" in Law Imposement will stand up and tell their bosses they ain't doing it! I'm sure of it because I keep hearing what "really good guys" they are.
You see, "really good guys" would instantly recognize that this kind of seizure of information and any order to do so is unlawful. "Really good guys" would recognize the fact that the Fourth Amendment isn't an impediment to their jobs, but the reason for it. The Fourth Amendment is the highest law in the land, which those "really good guys" are sworn to uphold!
Those "really good guys" who, I'm sure, are the vast majority of Law Imposement personnel, will now stand up and say,
"No, boss! I ain't doin' it!"
There will be thousands of federal agents refusing such orders. I'm sure of it.
You know, "really good guys", and all that. Right?
Can we all agree that the federal leviathan has already crossed that existential line?
The fact they are pursuing the warrantless searches through the court system should indicate they have at least on foot still on the other side trying to drag it over for their headlong march into tyranny.
The lessons of the Stasi Police should be a warning for those inclined to go that direction...
...when the wall finally crumbled, the Stasi were immediately assaulted and their headquarters were attacked and looted. The treasure troves of personal information were discovered and became evidence at their trials.
The police who tried to escape by 'blending' into the crowds have been ruthlessly hunted for prosecution and more than a few episodes of personal 'justice'. The Stasi police were well known and those they persecuted and spied on made great efforts to document the abuse the memorize faces.
Well, the state police in Illinois (I think it was Illinois but not real sure now.) earlier this year told the tyrants to go fuck themselves when they were told to turn over information on handgun owners. And Mike had a recent story about a sheriff giving the finger to the feds over some tree cutting. Not to mention lots of "eff yous" most don't get to hear about.
Recently, here in the capital of Illinois, local government passed code that requires recyclers to keep detailed information about people who bring in metals to recycle. Part of that code is the requirement that LEO be afforded warrantless access to this information upon demand so long as it is "during regular business hours".
Like the Founders themselves, I accept that searches against a person's will are a necessary part of law enforcement. I agree with "reasonable" when it comes to the Fourth Amendment and the balance created by warrant requirement itself.
But ask yourself this. If we continue on this path that government is somehow empowered to issue permission slips for EVERYTHING, at what point do we need a permission slip to be protected from warrantless searches?
Everything has gone backward. And the Good Book warns of what that means. We must turn the corner and flip the script so to speak. We must get back to the situation where government must seek the permission slips from us - rather than us seeking permission slips from it/them.
This is the result of surrendering your autonomy to the state.
Our blogs are no different since you must do the same to blog on google or anywhere else.
The employees no longer fear the employers authority.. we should fix that.
Yank lll
Their courts will uphold their abrogations of the constitution and bill of rights.
Their courts will hold up their hand and swear that everything they have done or want to do is lawful under the constitution.
They have prepped for any reactions paying for it with your money. They expect to get away with it because they control the stories that will be told by the media. They are the media. Without the media they could never do this.
They will only be held to account by us, no one else, and they know it.
They are not afraid and they are, tyranical and evil. Worse things are to come because these situations do not ever end well for the people, but you may be sure that the people will be told that it's someone else's fault, not their's.
Single me out, make me fit a profile, find that I don't conform,
put a federal wiretap on my phone (which they did), monitor my mail, or follow where ever I go. None of it matters because I don't give a fuck about anything, except liberty and exposing the felonious and treasonous activities of our usurper potus and about 70% of all our elected officials. Don't want to see it, but don't know any other outcome, except civil war. Won't start the fight, but will forever defend myself and my family and my beloved republic and the only laws that govern her: the Constitution and Gods Law.
Paul Paver Jr.
Capt. PALG
III
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