Twitter Sues Gov’t Over Public Disclosures

Twitter filed a lawsuit this week saying that restrictions on how often it can inform its users of government requests for user data violate the tech giant’s First Amendment rights. “It is our belief that we are entitled under the First 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,” Ben Lee, vice president for legal matters at Twitter, wrote in a blog post. Technology companies are limited by law from sharing some information about the public disclosure requests they receive. By filing the suit, Twitter becomes the last major tech firm to continue its battle against the government’s requests.