US Court Orders Twitter to Hand Over WikiLeaks Account Details

In early January 2011, it emerged that a court in Virginia had ordered Twitter to secretly hand over details of five accounts associated with WikiLeaks — including Julian Assange's — amid what appeared to be a widening US grand jury investigation into the group's communications with Bradley Manning, the Army serviceman accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables.

WikiLeaks confirmed the existence of the subpoena publicly, marking the first confirmation of a secret grand jury espionage investigation into the organization. The writ demanded the San Francisco-based company turn over account details and private messaging records for the five named individuals.

The disclosure triggered an immediate pressure campaign. WikiLeaks publicly demanded that Google and Facebook reveal the contents of any similar subpoenas they might have received — the logic being that if Twitter had been served, other platforms almost certainly had been too. Some of those named in the Twitter order said they would fight disclosure in court.

The episode was a landmark in the collision between the internet's architecture and state power: the same platforms that had made global publishing effortless were now, one sealed court order at a time, being conscripted as evidence gatherers. The accounts were private; the court order was secret; only Twitter's decision — or obligation — to notify its users brought any of it into the light.