W'leaks: 'Twitter users must hand over a/c'

Mar 12, 2011 |

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New York: A federal magistrate judge has ruled that Twitter users targeted by federal agents have no right to dispute the release of their account records to investigators probing controversial WikiLeaks postings.

Judge Theresa Buchanan's 20-page opinion struck down the Twitter-user's arguments on every point.

According to Fox News, she denied their motion to reverse her December court order, giving the government the right to obtain account records from Twitter.

Judge Buchanan also refused to force open information related to any other orders seeking similar information from other companies.

The key to Friday's ruling is that the government is only seeking information related to Twitter accounts and not the content of messages sent by three users who are targets of the federal investigation and linked to WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange.

Buchanan struck down the merits of the legal claims made by Jacob Appelbaum, Birgitta Jonsdottir and Rop Gonggrijp.

She said the information sought by the government is relevant to a legitimate investigation even if some disclosed records are later determined to be non-essential to prosecutors.

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