The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Elon Musk’s X Corp. to consider whether the social media company, formerly called Twitter, can publicly disclose how often federal law enforcement seeks information about users for national security investigations.
The judge declined to hear X’s appeal of a lower court ruling that held that the FBI’s restrictions on what the company could say publicly about the investigation did not violate free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
X has said it is “critical” for the judge to take up the case to set clear standards for when and how tech companies can talk about government requests for classified information about their users for surveillance.
“History shows that the surveillance of electronic communications is a fertile ground for government abuse and lightning rod political topics that concern the public,” X’s lawyer wrote in his petition to the Supreme Court.
The justices declined to hear an appeal by Elon Musk’s X of a lower court ruling that said the FBI’s restrictions on what the company can say publicly about the investigation did not violate free speech rights. AFP via Getty Images
Musk in a post on X called it “disappointing that the Supreme Court refused to hear this.”
The long-running lawsuit was filed in 2014, long before Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked information in 2013 about the extent of US spying and surveillance efforts.
In response to public outcry over disclosures from Snowden’s leaks, the US government at the request of tech companies including Google’s Meta Platform, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook owner Alphabet agreed to loosen restrictions on what they can reveal about government-held data. wanted in connection with national security investigations.
The long-running lawsuit was filed in 2014 after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked information in 2013 about the extent of US spying and surveillance efforts. Reuters
The revised policy, announced in 2014, allows companies to disclose in broad ranges rather than exact numbers how often they receive national security-related requests for information.
Congress in 2015 enacted a law that allows companies to disclose limited information about how often they receive national security letters and orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to search for user data. But they can still do so only in broad ranges rather than exact numbers. Depending on the type of report they publish, companies can disclose government requests for data in increments of as few as 100 or as many as 1,000.
Twitter, as X was known at the time, said in its lawsuit that it wanted to go further and disclose the exact number in the previous six months that the government served it with a national security order seeking information.
Congress in 2015 enacted a law that allows companies to disclose limited information about how often they receive so-called national security letters. AP
It had submitted a draft report to the Federal Bureau of Investigation before suing that would have done just that, but the FBI concluded the information in the report was classified and could not be released publicly.
A trial judge dismissed Twitter’s claim, and a three-judge panel of the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco upheld the decision in March 2023, saying “the government’s restrictions on Twitter speech are narrowly tailored to support compelling government interests. .”
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
