(Los Angeles Times) – Twitter Inc. is the latest tech giant to sue the U.S. government for the right to reveal the scope of government surveillance of its users.
The San Francisco microblogging site filed suit against the Department of Justice and the FBI on Tuesday, saying it was being “unconstitutionally restricted by statutes that prohibit and even criminalize” the public disclosure of such requests.
Twitter hopes to be able to publish a “full transparency” report, which details the kind and number of national security letters and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court orders the company has received from the government.
“It’s our belief that we are entitled under the 1st Amendment to respond to our users’ concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance,” Twitter lawyer Benjamin Lee said in a blog post. “We should be free to do this in a meaningful way, rather than in broad, inexact ranges.”