Us Government Takes on Twitter and Wikileaks

As Hillary Clinton gave her speech praising the role of social networks in promoting freedom, the US government (and the Obama administration) stepped up their efforts to force twitter to disclose all anonymous twitter accounts associated with wikileaks.

Lawyers from various civil rights organizations are currently battling Hillary, and the Obama administration to protect individual liberties. The US Department of Justice is trying to get Twitter to fork over all the information associated with various accounts which have been tied to wikileaks. The lawyers argue that forcing twitter to disclose the information would be in violation of Freedom of Privacy and could create a strong precedent for anonymity in the digital age. Even more troubling is the case of Bradley Manning who is currently being held in solitary confinement and denied legal counsel as CIA officials attempt to get him to make statements which could later be used in a case against wikileaks. Bradley Manning is the private who released the footage of an apache helicopter gunning down 12 civilians in Iraq. It later turned out they weren’t carrying guns, but instead cameras, and two reuters journalists were mowed down. A man who arrived at the scene with his two children attempted to carry one of the journalists into his vehicle when the gunner was given the order to “light em up”. The man was blown to pieces in front of his children. The gunner and commander responsible for the actions have received no jail time but were instead honorably discharged. Meanwhile the whistle blower in the case, Bradley Manning sits in solitary confinement while he is psychologically tortured by US government agents.

In Hillary Clinton’s speech she cited the positive role that Twitter, Facebook and other social networks played in uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (now that Mubarak’s gone it’s time to be on the side of the people. lol). In a stirring defense of the internet, she spoke of the “freedom to connect”.