Government demands for Twitter records of Birgitta Jonsdottir

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union represent Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of the Icelandic Parliament, in response to the efforts by the U.S. Department of Justice to seek information and records about her online activities as part of the investigation into Wikileaks.

The case is called In the Matter of the 2703(d) Order Relating to Twitter Accounts: Wikileaks, Rop_G, IOERROR; and BirgittaJ

Along with counsel for Rop Gonggrijp and Jacob Appelbaum, EFF and ACLU filed two motions in federal court on January 26, 2011 (the motions were unsealed on February 8, 2011).

One motion is a request to unseal the still-secret court records of the government's attempts to collect private records from Twitter, Inc., as well as other companies who may have received demands for information from the government.

The second motion seeks to overturn the court Order issued on December 14 requiring Twitter to hand over private records about some of its users, including Ms. Jonsdottir, Mr. Gonggrijp and Mr. Appelbaum. A hearing on the motions is set for February 15 in Alexandria, Virginia.

This is the Memoradum Opinion. Please see full opinion below.