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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Corbett subpoenas Twitter for critics' names

Should Tweets be protected as free speech by the First Amendment?
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State Attorney General Tom Corbett wants to know who's saying bad things about him in fewer than 140 characters:

[Corbett] subpoenaed Twitter, asking that it hand over the “name, address, contact information, creation date, creation Internet Protocol address and any and all log in Internet Protocol address” associated with two Twitter accounts, @bfbarbie and @casablancaPA, which have only 68 and 123 followers, respectively [as of Wednesday night, 124 and 206].

Both accounts have posted Tweets critical of the gubernatorial candidate. Are they enough to warrant subpoenas to discover their identities? Some items have claimed Corbett mixes campaign work with taxpayer business. Recent examples:

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

@casablancapa: Corbett: it's unethical to investigate political supporters. But only for other prosecutors. http://tiny.cc/quo10 #bonusgate @pagovrace

@bfbarbie: Corbett erupts at campaign event; security tries to eject questioner http://bit.ly/caIR44 #bonusgate can you say LOSER????

The "casablancapa" account is tied to a pseudonymous blog critical of Corbett, which posts a lot of detail about Bonusgate. The Tweeter tells TechCrunch: "We believe this is more about the blog than the Tweets. We have not received notification of a subpoena to Blogger, so we really don’t know. We are seeking legal representation and plan to ask Twitter not to comply."

You can read the subpoena below (as posted here). It demands the information because of "alleged violations of the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

Whether and when it's OK for a court to order the release of an anonymous online poster's identity is still a developing area of the law. But we wonder if this benefits Corbett in any case. If he's successful, the best-case scenario is that he will have the names of two people who don't think he should be governor. Two people with a combined audience of fewer than 400 people (a number that Corbett himself has vastly inflated by issuing a subpoena).

There are millions of people who don't think he should be governor — and millions who think he should. Is there something special about these two? We might find out.

UPDATE: The story has taken a new twist, with the Post-Gazette reporting that Corbett's office believes CasablancaPA is being run by Brett Cott, a former legislative aide just convicted in the unfolding Bonusgate scandal. In court filings, two assistant attorneys general argue the blog demonstrates that Cott is deflecting blame and denying responsibility for the crimes of which he's been convicted. They are seeking a longer-than-normal sentence and basing their argument on that.

Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley told Politico that the attorney general didn't issue the subpoena because the Twitter users have been critical of Corbett and said it was issued as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. But he declined to go into further detail.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union has thrown itself into the fray, saying it will move to quash the subpoena if it can't reach a negotiated settlement with Corbett. And Allegheny County executive Dan Onorato, who will face Corbett in the fall gubernatorial election, has accused him of misusing his office.

Twitter subpoena
Posted by Dave Merrell @ 9:02 AM  Permalink | 93 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:14 AM, 05/20/2010
    scary
    — 1adam12
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:17 AM, 05/20/2010
    Abuse of power.
    — tonyS
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:23 AM, 05/20/2010
    Wow, you just couldn't make this stuff up if you tried! Thanks to Corbett I'm now reading casablancaPA's blog. And so apparently a lot of other people who hadn't heard about it before. Way to go.
    — aud
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:34 AM, 05/20/2010
    typical whiner... i hope this is coming out of his pocket and not taxpayer money.
    — tdoc
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:38 AM, 05/20/2010
    I assume criticism of politicians is still legal in PA? I don't really know what Corbett's strategy is here. This has now become national news since I first heard about it through CNN. I've never heard of these two "tweeters" but now I have, and so have millions of others. If he hadn't done this, probably no one would have ever read the three "tweets" in question. Now they have a larger audience than they ever could have hoped.
    — obreaslan
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:39 AM, 05/20/2010
    It's just another Cyberslapp to shut down free speech via intimidation and subpoena. Corbett couldn't do much with the information even if Twitter gives it to him, which they shouldn't do without a fight. Liberals go the Cyberslapp route too, like when they sued Domelights last year to shut IT down.
    — Fingerprints
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:42 AM, 05/20/2010
    Tom Corbett's trying to be big brother and yet he'll run on a platform of limited government. Typical Political Hypocrite.
    — BleedingRed
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:00 AM, 05/20/2010
    Corrupt Corbett can't take criticism - so he attacks Twitter account. lol.
    — pal
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:06 AM, 05/20/2010
    The other candidate would have to be dog stupid for me to vote for Corbett after reading this.
    — Wednesday
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:07 AM, 05/20/2010
    so the State Attorney General used his office to obtain a subpoena for himself as the plantiff over political activities. Good use of taxpayer money. Glad to know PA has so much extra cash to throw around on this type of activity. Sounds like he make a GREAT gov of the state. Clearly someone else who thinks his needs are greater than those of the state. Hopefully he'll be paying cards with ole Arlen in the old folks home soon
    — TomSmith
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:19 AM, 05/20/2010
    and this is why corbett should have been forced to resign his position as ag when he announced his candidacy for governor.
    — flavious27
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:20 AM, 05/20/2010
    LoL, Dems do this all the time. Its just the leftist Philly Inquirer trying to make a story about it.
    — Citizenc92


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