Why Is The DOJ Gagging Twitter And Yahoo Concerning Grand Jury Subpoenas?
from the please-explain dept
The ACLU has jumped into a troubling legal fight, in which it appears that the DOJ has issued gag orders against Twitter and Yahoo concerning grand jury subpoenas that have been sent to both companies. This case is one we mentioned last week where magistrate judge John Facciola asked the two companies to weigh in, as he appears unconvinced that the government's request is sound. However, the whole thing is happening under seal, which the ACLU feels is inappropriate, given the importance of allowing companies to respond freely to such requests, without being gagged.It's good to see at least some pushback on the feds' attempt to get information and to silence companies from saying anything about it. But it's still quite troubling that they seem to assume they have near free rein to do so in the first place. Kudos to the ACLU for stepping in as well, and representing the public interest.The ACLU filed a motion last night seeking to represent the public's interest in open court proceedings when the government seeks gag orders on Internet companies. We know about the three cases only because the magistrate judge pushed back on the government, inviting Yahoo and Twitter to weigh in and ordering the government to make its legal arguments public. The government appealed those orders to a district court, where the judge ordered the appeals sealed. The ACLU is now moving to intervene in the district court for the purpose of opening these gag order proceedings to public scrutiny. In a democracy, if your government is going to gag someone from speaking, it should publicly explain why.
The federal government has an awesome array of tools and technologies in its investigative arsenal, and it often goes to great lengths to shield its tactics from outside scrutiny. Not only does this secrecy prevent people from challenging surveillance used against them, but it also means that elected officials can't openly debate the underlying policies, and communities can't discuss their government's actions.
Traditionally, gag order applications are considered ex parte – meaning with only the government's argument on the record before the court. However, Magistrate Judge Facciola noted that the government's request in this case raised controversial legal questions, and so invited Twitter and Yahoo to respond. (In one case, the government withdrew its gag order application after Judge Facciola invited Twitter's participation.) He also ordered the government file public copies of its gag order applications with limited redactions.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: free speech, gag orders, grand jury, subpoenas
Companies: aclu, twitter, yahoo
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Because they still can't gag everything else so they are gagging ONLY what we are seeing today.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Anyone who thinks the Dems are all left-liberal is misguided. They're mostly center-right and the few liberals there are don't have much power.
Start looking at the third parties that we have and consider their policies. Which ones look good to you? Now talk about them on your social media accounts.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Because they only want to present evidence of guilt,and do not want anybody coming forward to offering evidence of innocence to the defense.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Gag orders
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Gag orders
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nazi Officials In White-wash House Apply The Left Power Base Given By Left Wingers
You silly Americans wanted this Commie regime, now stop whining cause it's doing what it promised, and you drowned out sanity shouting in favor of!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]