&host=www.rt.com&uri=/news/occupy-boston-twitter-court-027/&via=1.1 8.27.241.147:80 (Footprint 4.8/FPMCP)&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html))
Silence of the tweets: Occupy Boston in cop court case
Published: 30 December, 2011, 19:49
Boston Police Department officers remove Occupy Boston protesters from Dewey Square in Boston, December 10, 2011 (Reuters / Essdras M Suarez / Pool)
TAGS: Protest, Politics, Human rights, Law, Internet, USA, Social networks, Police
The first amendment is on the ropes as a secretive court ruling will force Twitter to hand user account information over to the Boston Police Department. The case highlights fears that political speech is increasingly being criminalized in America.
Twitter had originally refused to comply with the information request concerning a user known as “@p0isAn0N,” aka Guido Fawkes, who was named in a subpoena issued by the Suffolk County district attorney.
The subpoena in question requested “all available” subscriber information – including IP address logs – connected with the accounts GuidoFawkes,” “@p0isAn0N,” “@OccupyBoston,” “#BostonPD,” and “#d0xcak3”, as a part of an ongoing criminal investigation which is apparently linked to the Occupy Boston movement.
Information was also requested for users who had used the hashtag-keywords #BostonPD or #d0xcak3 from 8-13 December.
The tweet that sparked the latest court battle is said to have provided personal information concerning Boston police officers, which was allegedly hacked from a members-only union website.
However, “GuidoFawkes” later said on Twitter the controversial information he originally tweeted concerning the Boston police had been pulled from “public domains.”
The hacker group Anonymous is said to have broken into the servers used by the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association in October and copied the information, which was later linked through Twitter as payback for “unprovoked mass arrests” of 141 occupy Boston protesters on October 11.
Meanwhile, Peter Krupp, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer who had attempted to quash the subpoena on free speech grounds, objected to the case being held in secret and was troubled by the free speech implications the judge’s ruling represented.
“When an administrative subpoena is used to get information that’s protected by the First Amendment, that raises particularly troubling issues,” the Boston Globe cites Krupp as saying.
A court official said the judge’s ruling would be stayed for 10 days so that the attorneys would have the opportunity to appeal.
The case originally made headlines around the world after Twitter notified GuidoFawkes and other users that the company had been served with the subpoena, despite specifically being told not to by the Suffolk district attorney.
Guido Fawkes, who was provided a copy of the request by Twitter, went on to post the content of the subpoena online. Matt Graves, a spokesman for Twitter, said it was company policy to alert users about subpoenas related to their Twitter accounts.
According to Twitter’s official policy, the only situations for which the company refrains from notifying a user about a request for information about their account is when they are “prohibited from doing so by statute or court order.”
Although disappointed by Thursday’s ruling, Krupp went on to praise Twitter, saying that most other social networking services had “no interest” in standing up for their users rights, as they were granted immunity if they complied with law enforcement requests.
30.12.2011, 19:28
4 comments
Cub club: Chinese zoo gets twin polar attraction (VIDEO)Touching footage of twin polar bear cubs fooling around have charmed TV viewers around the world. |
30.12.2011, 23:33
3 comments
‘Oil exporters to gain if conflict in Persian Gulf’While Washington and Iran continue to shake their fists at each other in the Persian Gulf, oil exporters may come out of the crisis with a new, high benchmark in oil prices, says author and journalist Patrick Henningsen. |
"The Republican's will try to make people believe that everything the
Government has done for the country is socialism. They will go to the
people and say: "Did you see that social security check you received the
other day-you thought that was good for you, didn't you? That's just
too bad! That's nothing in the world but socialism. Did you see that new
flood control dam the Government is building over there for the
protection of your property? Sorry-that's awful socialism! That new
hospital that they are building is socialism. Price supports, more
socialism for the farmers! Minimum wage laws? Socialism for labor!
Socialism is bad for you, my friend. Everybody knows that. And here you
are, with your new car, and your home, and better opportunities for the
kids, and a television set-you are just surrounded by socialism! Now the
Republican's say, 'That's a terrible thing, my friend, and the only way
out of this sinkhole of socialism is to vote for the Republican
ticket.'"
Harry S Truman" 1947
@ProudAmerican
Unless you are a politics professor you, as an American, have no idea what "socialism" really is.
I don't say this to insult you, it's just a statement of fact.
Most nations on earth have never seen real socialism. The rich and those in power don't like "socialism", so when it's practised it's distorted out of recognition and usually it's spoken against.
The question you have to ask is who is condemning it?
If it's the people who would stand to lose their lovely privileges and tax breaks and lucrative Government contracts, then their condemnation of socialism should ring alarm bells and cause you to examine what it is they're scared of (I can tell you the answer to that - they're scared of losing their wealth and privilege. They know right well that they're greedy little piggies with their hands in the till, but it's a nice place to be in and they don't want to lose it).
So they have engaged in a concerted (and very successful) propaganda campaign against "socialism" and muppets like you believe it and run around spouting anti-socialism propaganda when "real socialism" is THE only hope for the USA, Europe and humanity as a whole.
But of course those with over 90% of the wealth and resources don't like socialism - socialism says everything should be shared equally and those with (far) more than their fair share don't want that.
The OWS movement is made up people of all ages, races, with a variety of causes they have protested in the past. They all have a couple of things in common, they want an end to the fraud on Wall Street, and they want the democracy and freedom that they have been told all their lives was theirs.
From the first days people were asking for books so they could educate themselves, to learn the real history of the country, and what was really going on in the world.
When the corporate mass media totally ignored them in the first weeks and they discovered that mass media in other countries was giving them good fair coverage they realized they were living in a propaganda system they had been taught only existed in other countries. This just angered them and many turned off their TVs for good. When the police brutality started many more people joined the movement to stand up for the right to assemble and free speech. The movement continues to grow despite evictions, police harassment, police brutality and mass arrests for no justifiable reason. The latest attempts to censor, and block live streaming have brought more protesters into the movement; arresting media crews, and photographers, and smashing or stealing their cameras just results in twice as many coming forward to take their place.
Many OWS protesters only learned the real meaning of democracy, anarchism, and socialism after they joined the movement. No they are not all socialists and anarchists now but they all have learned how to live together in a democratic community, and for the first time in their lives they have felt freedom.
These brave OWS protesters have been putting up with police infiltrators, police provocateurs, plants to disrupt their general assemblies, having their media people targeted and arrested, being beaten, pepper sprayed, tear gassed, and arrested; and they have remained peaceful. Many of the camps have been closed for the time being but the education and recruiting have really escalated. Since shutting down the west coast ports the people realize their power and they know they can win. People who have experienced the exhilaration of freedom are prepared to suffer and die for it if necessary.
As Che' said, If you have nothing worth dying for, you have nothing worth living for.