Twitter subpoenaed to turn over Wikileaks information

By Molly McHugh January 10, 2011

The recent Wikileaks dilemma played out widely on social media sites, including Twitter, and now the company is being ordered to turn over account information by a US court. A subpoena filed on December 14 (which was sent to The Associated Press) shows that the US Department of Justice will receive not only the account data of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, but of suspected affiliate former US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning. Other supporters and volunteers (including a member of Iceland’s parliament) records were also demanded.

Twitter will have to turn over connection records and session times, IP addresses used to access its site, e-mail and physical addresses, private messages, phone numbers, and billing information, for four account holders.

Wikileaks of course had a response to the subpoena, telling Rueters it “strongly condemns this harassment of individuals by the US government.” According to Wikileaks, three of the four accounts in question belong to users who simply supported the site. Wikileaks isn’t the only one protesting: the Icelandic government plans to combat the actions with the US ambassador in Reykjavik, saying it would do everything to protect the privacy of its parliament member.

Shortly after the fallout from Cablegate, a hacktivist group by the name of Anonymous began attacking sites that were blocking WIkileaks access, including Mastercard and Visa. Members of this group were largely using Twitter to organize these online attacks.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…

Computing

Nvidia could flip the script on the RTX 5090

The Hyte Y40 PC case sitting on a table.

We already know Nvidia is working on its RTX 50-series graphics cards, code-named Blackwell, but the rollout may not go as expected.

According to well-known hardware leaker kopite7kimi, Nvidia plans to launch the RTX 5080 before it launches the RTX 5090. That may not sound like a big deal, but it's a change of pace compared to what we saw in the last generation.

Computing

Best laptop deals: Save on the Dell XPS 14, MacBook Pro 16 and more

The Dell XPS 14 on a white table with the screen open.

While having a desktop computer can be pretty great, laptops offer you a lot of portability, which is especially important if you need something to take with you to work or school. Luckily, there are a lot of choices to pick from, and while the best laptops tend to be quite expensive, there are some pretty great deals that will get you pretty close. There are also a lot of the best laptop brands offering solid budget and mid-range laptops, so even if you're buying on a budget, there's likely a good option for you.

HP Chromebook 14a -- $300, was $370

Computing

The new iPad Pro would be perfect, if only it were a Mac

A person gaming on the M4 iPad Pro and playing Diablo Immortal.

It’s no secret that I’ve been cheering on Apple’s gaming advances over the last year or so. Long-suffering Mac gamers have gone from being the forgotten also-rans of Apple’s ecosystem to feeling on top of the world, all in a very short period of time. But there’s one vital piece missing from the puzzle, and Apple’s new M4 iPad Pros have made it incredibly obvious.

I’ll admit, Mac gamers have been treated well in recent times. Not only have we had phenomenal hardware advancements in the form of the M3 Max chip -- which is a genuine gaming chip so cool and quiet that you’d be fooled into thinking it’s not -- but there’s also been a slate of top-tier games arriving on Apple’s platform, including my beloved Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a good time to be a Mac gamer.