Can the U.S. Government close social media accounts?
Tuesday, Dec 20, 2011 1:15 AM Pacific Standard Time
By Glenn Greenwald
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So the U.S. Government believes it may have “legal authority” to compel Twitter to close accounts. From where does that authority derive? Presumably, the Obama administration could consider Twitter’s providing of a forum to a designated Terrorist organization to constitute the crime of “material support of Terrorism.”
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What is more likely than compulsory action is thuggish extra-legal intimidation aimed at Twitter to “voluntarily” close the account. That path is less overt but just as insidious, if not more so. That is how government officials such as Joe Lieberman succeeded in cutting off all of WikiLeaks’ funding sources and web hosting options without the bother of charging that group with a crime: by demanding that Amazon, Master Card, Visa, Paypal and others “on their own accord” terminate WikiLeaks’ accounts and refuse to provide the group with any services. As EFF’s Trevor Timm asked today: “How fast does Joe Lieberman release a statement today saying we should censor the Net in the name of national security? I bet before noon.”
Are there really people who want the U.S. Government empowered to dictate who can and cannot have social media accounts to communicate ideas? Two weeks ago, the London Police characterized the Occupy movement as a “Terrorist” group alongside Al Qaeda and FARC. The Kenyan Army spokesman engaged in the “Twitter war” with the Shabab account today wrote: “Al Shabaab needs to be engaged positively and twitter is the only avenue.” Having the government shut down social media accounts is laughably ineffective — it would take Shabab about 30 seconds to open a new one — but the theories embraced to justify that power are purely tyrannical.
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The powers with which the U.S. Government has vested itself would be disturbing and odious no matter the magnitude of the highlighted threat. But the fact that they’re now reduced to bottom-of-the-barrel screeching about Twitter Terrorism — while simultaneously claiming the “legal authority” to force the closing of social media accounts — reveals just how wide is the gap between the magnitude of the powers they seek and the magnitude of the threat they cite to justify them. As always, the War on Terror is not a means to an end; it is the end in itself.
Read the whole piece: http://www.salon.com/2011/12/20/the_u_s_government_targets_twitter_terrorism/singleton/
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