Twitter appeals ruling to supply Occupy protester’s tweets

As expected, Twitter has filed a brief appealing a June decision that required the information network to supply the tweets and data of one of its users charged in a criminal case.

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In the case of The People of the State of New York v. Malcolm Harris, Harris is charged with disorderly conduct for his alleged involvement in an Occupy Wall Street march on the Brooklyn Bridge. Police suspect Harris used Twitter to coordinate efforts related to the protest.

Twitter, unsuccessful in its previous attempts to quash a subpoena for Harris’ data, said it would fight the court’s rulings.

Today, Twitter has filed its official appeal with the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division. The company is once again asserting that Harris has standing to quash a subpoena for his records, and that Harris’ tweets are protected under the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable search and seizures. The information network is seeking to have the court’s rulings reversed.

“Twitter users own their Tweets. They have a right to fight invalid government requests, and we continue to stand with them in that fight,” Twitter’s legal counsel Ben Lee posted in an update to Twitter on Monday.

The legal maneuver is once again being applauded by the American Civil Liberties Union, which today said that it would file a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Twitter. Harris, a senior editor at the nonprofit news organization The New Inquiry, filed his own appeal to the rulings last week.

Twitter’s brief is included below.

Photo credit: Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr

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