Pennsylvania Attorney General Subpoenas Twitter To Identify Critics

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, who is the Republican candidate for Governor, is upset that some people on Twitter have criticized him, so he has subpoenaed the service to provide the identity of the offenders.  He is asking that Twitter appear as a Grand Jury witness to “testify and give evidence regarding alleged violations of the laws of Pennsylvania”.

The subpoena orders Twitter to provide “any and all subscriber information” of the person(s) behind two accounts – @bfbarbie and @CasaBlancaPA – who have been anonymously criticizing the man on the popular micro-sharing service.

According to the subpoena…the information that Twitter is ordered to provide includes “name, address, contact information, creation date, creation Internet Protocol address and any and all log in Internet Protocol address”.

The @CasaBlancaPA account links to a blog that is critical of the attorney general, saying that it is dedicated to “exposing the hypocrisy of Tom Corbett”.  Some of the Tweets:

– “Is it wrong to mix campaign work with taxpayer business? Apparently not when Tom Corbett does it bonusgate #pagovrace”

– “Corbett erupts at campaign event; security tries to eject questioner #bonusgate #pagovrace”

– “Quiz! Who sputters with indignation over failure to recuse from cases involving contributors? #bonusgate #pagovrace”

Twitter’s legal counsel, Timothy Yip, has issued this statement:

We protect and do not disclose user information except in limited circumstances. We notify a user, if we believe we are allowed to by law, when we receive any request for their information that we may be required to comply with. This policy is designed for maximum transparency and gives users an opportunity to object.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.