Twitter ordered to provide Wikileaks supporters account info

Microblogging site, Twitter has been ordered by the U.S Department of Justice to hand over information for three Wikileaks supporters. According to Mashable, the account information of the three supporters will be used in the investigation against Wikileaks and in particular, its founder, Julian Assange. The three supporters whose information has to be handed over are Jacob Appelbaum, a computer security researcher, Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland’s Parliament and Rop Gonggrijp, a Dutch rapper.

Ordered to hand over info

The Department of Justice has previously requested for the Twitter information of the same three account holders, but had been denied. This time, with its approval, it has caused some disappointment in the American Civil Liberties Union. Aden Fine, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents Jonsdottir, said, “Before…constitutional rights are infringed, individuals need to have an opportunity to go to court to protect their rights.”

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The information requested is quite extensive. The Department of Justice is seeking all mailing addresses and billing information known for the user, all connection records, session times, and IP addresses that were used to access Twitter, all e-mail accounts and ‘means and source of payment’, which include banking records and credit cards beginning from the 1st November, 2009 till the present day.