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NYCLU Backs Twitter To Block City's Subpoena Of OWS Tweets
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 28, 2012
Modified Aug 28, 2012
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Jessica Lehrman / Gothamist
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 28, 2012
Modified Aug 28, 2012
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The NYCLU has filed a brief supporting Twitter's appeal of a judge's ruling last month that ordered the company to turn over the tweets of Occupy Wall Street protester Malcolm Harris. Twitter's appeal argues that Harris's tweets belong to him, and the subpoena violates his fourth amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
Harris was one of the hundreds arrested during the Brooklyn Bridge action last October, and the Manhattan DA's office subpoenaed three months of his tweets. In last month's ruling, Judge Matthew Sciarrino wrote, "If you post a tweet, just like if you scream it out the window, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy." But Harris has appealed the ruling himself, arguing that because the tweets show his location and the duration of time that he was logged onto Twitter, the subpoena represents a warrantless search.
“The criminal court held that Harris has no privacy interest in information held by third parties,” NYCLU Staff Attorney Mariko Hirose says in a release. “This ruling is a problem for the right to privacy in this digital age where an increasing amount of our information is stored by third-party providers.”
At a press conference last month, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told us, "[The NYPD] only monitors social media for specific investigations. That's the world we live in."
In other Occupy Wall Street-related legal news: Nick Pinto reports that the City is blaming Brookfield Properties for the destruction of the protesters' property that occurred during the November 15 eviction. In their response to two lawsuits currently pending against the City, attorneys for the City's law department included Brookfield Properties as a third-party, co-defendant.
Specifically, the city's response claims that Brookfield hired a carting company for the night of the eviction, and that that company took property from the park straight to a landfill, but that "City defendants played no role in, and did not authorize, the disposal of any property from Zuccotti Park."
For anyone who witnessed the fleet of Sanitation trucks and workers clad in city uniforms that night, this is an outrageous claim.
Tagged
nyclu
occupy wall street
eviction of zuccotti park
city law department
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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