Twitter Subpoenaed by U.S. Government to corner Assange

According to a report, the U.S. government has asked Twitter to hand over private messages sent to and from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks staffers’ twitter accounts; raising some speculation that in all likelihood, the US Government is also contacting other web services Assange may have used, to get contact details and personal information about Assage’s activities and supporters.

The said report, by the New York Times, uses the word ‘subpoenea’ for the actions of the U.S. Government in this context. In simple subpoenea means to command attendance in court by a legal writ (or notice), in case of disobedience, the person or entity that is served a subpoenea gets a penalty. So, Twitter has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Government in connection to the ongoing WikiLeaks investigation.

How can Twitter Help in trapping Assange:

Twitter, like most web companies, has a “spy guide,” documents pertaining to compliance with request from governments and law enforcement into criminal investigations. These documents contain all sort of information like, session times and connection records, telephone numbers, credit card information, e-mail and IP addresses, correspondence and notes of record. These requests are supposed to be accompanied by subpoenas or warrants (in short, non-public information about users of any web company is not released unless it has received a subpoena, court order or other legal process document. That is enforceable by Law).

Which Twitter accounts are to be be shared with Court:

Accounts belonging to Assange, Wikileaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning (widely suspected to be the original source responsible for transfering cables to Wikileaks), and several Wikileaks associates and volunteers, including Birgitta Jonsdottir, Rop Gongrijp, and San Francisco-based programmer Jacob Appelbaum. --------

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