Twitter has been ordered to turn over about three months’ worth of tweets sent by an Occupy Wall Street protester. The judge ordered all the material be turned over to him for his review and he would turn over relevant portions to the prosecutors.
The case comes after the protester failed to block the prosecutors from subpoenaing his tweets and user information. He claimed that the request breached his privacy and free-association rights because it would give prosecutors a window into who his followers are as well as their location at various points during the protest.
The court held that the protester did not have a proprietary interest in his tweets and therefore, could not challenge the subpoena. Twitter then appeared in court in his behalf arguing that the protester should have the right to challenge because it would pose a burden for Twitter to challenge every subpoena sent to them requesting their users content and information.
The court held that the protester had no privacy expectation in his tweets. However, Twitter had one victory: prosecutors need a warrant to obtain information that is less than 180 days old under the Stored Communications Act.
The protesters’ case is set for trial in December.
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