Privacy SOS

UPDATE: Boston Globe reports Twitter subpoena “part of a pending grand jury investigation”

Citing a representative of the court, the Boston Globe is reporting that the Suffolk County District Attorney's subpoena for Twitter account holder information related to Occupy Boston is "part of a pending grand jury investigation."

As we wrote here yesterday, Judge Carol Ball sealed the proceedings, including her ultimate ruling on whether the subpoena could go forward. That's to say, the public doesn't know whether Twitter will be forced to hand over the subscriber information of potentially hundreds of people who tweeted the #bostonPD and #doxcak3 hashtags, or mentioned Guido Fawkes, in addition to the two accounts subpoenaed, @p0isAn0n and @occupyboston (not the right account for Occupy Boston) and anyone "associated" with them. 

But now we know, thanks to the Globe piece, that the judge did agree that the subpoena was part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Which investigation? We do not know. That's because the ADA told the judge in secret, without ACLUm lawyers present. In other words, @p0isAn0n and the other potential targets of the subpoena don't know what they are being investigated for. We also don't know whether, if the judge allowed the subpoena to stand, Twitter will respond to the ADA's request for account information of any accounts "associated" with those hashtags or accounts. When you include @p0isAn0n's followers, that's thousands of people.

Read more from the Globe.

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