Twitter | Twitter Appeals Order That It Turn Over Protester's Posts

Twitter Inc. is appealing a judge'sorder to turn over information about an Occupy Wall Street protester's posts, saying it's committed to "fighting for ourusers."

A notice of appeal was filed in New York criminal courtJuly 17, seeking to overturn a June 30 decision by State SupremeCourt Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. Sciarrino denied Twitter'srequest to quash a subpoena from Manhattan District AttorneyCyrus Vance Jr. and said the company must turn over tweets byprotester Malcolm Harris, from Sept. 15 to Dec. 30.

"At Twitter, we are committed to fighting for our users,Twitter's legal counsel Ben Lee said today in an e-mailedstatement. ''Accordingly, we are appealing this decision which,in our view, doesn't strike the right balance between the rightsof our users and the interests of law enforcement ."

Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for Vance, declined to comment.

The case will determine whether Twitter faces the burden ofresponding to subpoenas for its users, the San Francisco-basedcompany has said. The outcome is significant throughout the U.S.as law enforcement becomes more aggressive in seekinginformation about what people do and say on the Internet, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a May 31 court filing.

"What you give to the public belongs to the public,"Sciarrino said in his ruling. "What you keep to yourselfbelongs only to you."

Sciarrino said the duties of Twitter and other social mediacompanies are similar to those of witnesses to street crimes.

Twitter provides real-time messaging and allows users tomake posts that are broadcast to people who sign up to followthem.

Twitter had asked Sciarrino to reverse an April rulingdenying Harris's request to quash a subpoena from Vance.Sciarrino ordered Twitter instead to comply with the subpoena,saying its users don't have standing to argue the issue, whilethe company does

After the judge's April 20 decision, Twitter

The ACLU had said Harris should be able to argue againstthe subpoena because his First Amendment right to free speechand his Fourth Amendment right to privacy are implicated.

Twitter said that if the district attorney can subpoena itfor user information, the company would be "put in theuntenable position of either providing user communications andaccount information in response to all subpoenas or attemptingto vindicate its users' rights by moving to quash thesesubpoenas itself."

Vance's subpoena seeks past Twitter posts and userinformation linked to the "@destructuremal" account of Harris,who was arrested with about 700 protesters on the BrooklynBridge on Oct. 1, according to court filings.

The information sought covers about 3 1/2 months, includingHarris's arrest date, as well as Internet Protocol addressescorresponding to each post -- something that would allowprosecutors to see Harris's location at the time the posts weresent.

Twitter said prosecutors can't argue that Harris's postsare "public" because they can't access his old poststhemselves.

"Otherwise the government would have already obtained thesubject's tweets itself and avoided wasting all the time andresources it has trying to enforce an unlawful subpoena issuedto Twitter," the company said in court papers.

The case is People of the State of New York v. Harris,11-80152, Supreme Court of the State of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story:Tiffany Kary in New York at tkary@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net