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this pretty much makes me sick to my stomach

joeavargaspjj0, on 03 July 2012 - 04:15 AM, said:

Wouldn't anyone expressing expressing an opinion be deemed an activist?

Maybe they'll make him take a bath in prison.

Yet we as a society do nothing or say nothing. And that's exactly the way our government wants it.

Sleep well, America.

For me the issue hangs on how the distinction between Twitter and email is made. A private Twitter account is equivalent to email in almost all respects, so would private Tweets or direct messages not be given the same protection as email? My hope would be that the judge is ruling just on the public tweets as those really don't have any expectation of privacy.

This post has been edited by Stewsburntmonkey: 03 July 2012 - 06:53 AM

This is not really that big of a deal because by definition everything everyone tweets is a public broadcast. There is nothing private about it. The deal here is the guy deleted the tweets and now Twitter has to turn over the archives. I'm inclined to tell the NYPD to get bent / do a better job of keeping their own records so they don't have to waste the court's time fighting Twitter over something so frivolous, but in terms of privacy there is nothing here.

Welcome to the United Police State of America. Show us your papers, salute the elite, and please bend over for your daily shafting.

Photonerd, on 03 July 2012 - 08:37 AM, said:

"There is nothing private about it."
Do we know the tweet settings of the defendant's account? Until then we may have to defer our judgment/opinion.
http://support.twitt.../articles/14016
About Public and Protected Tweets
What is the difference between public and protected Tweets?
When you sign up for Twitter, you have the option to keep your Tweets public (the default account setting) or to protect your Tweets.
Accounts with protected Tweets require manual approval of each and every person who may view that account's Tweets.

If the defendant's account is set to public, perhaps the court has some beef, otherwise it could be a matter of discussion.

Petew, on 03 July 2012 - 01:20 PM, said:

My understanding is that Tweets in question were public, not private.

Stewsburntmonkey, on 03 July 2012 - 06:50 AM, said:

That's the way I took the article: that they can't have Private Tweets and Direct Messages since, like email, it's a correspondence between two sources, or addresses, like email. Public Tweets, however, can be viewed by anyone regardless if you're "following" a user or not, the same as walking by and overhearing something someone says aloud on the street.


And while we should be ever vigilant on the encroachment on our civil liberties, none of the hipster, "down with the Man" commenters know anything of true oppression. If your rights are being rescinded, fight to reclaim them or move to another country where you are freer. Perhaps you'll find it worse off than here. Amazing how sounding off on the internet is about all you can muster.