Twitter, the major social networking site, finally gave up its fight against Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. who ordered the company to release three months' worth of tweets to the courts pertaining to the criminal trial of an Occupy Wall Street protester. Twitter put up a valiant effort to deny the judge these tweets, and the nation watched closely in one of the first major cases about how much access law enforcement agencies should have to material posted on social networks. When the courts threatened Twitter with steep fines for contempt of court for not turning over the tweets, they finally complied (The Wall Street Journal). .
The case began nearly a year ago on October 1 during a march in New York by the Occupy movement protesters. Despite warnings from the police, demonstrators attempted to cross a bridge on the roadway rather than on the pedestrian path. Almost 700 people were arrested for crossing in the roadway, including Malcolm Harris, an editor for an online culture magazine. Harris and other protestors said they believed the police had given them permission to walk in the roadway. Police want Twitter records from September 15th to December 31st in order to determine whether Harris was aware of the police orders that he is now charged with disregarding during the protest at Brooklyn Bridge (The Wall Street Journal). .
Harris originally tried to block prosecutors from subpoenaing the information himself, arguing that the user information violated his privacy and free association rights. After the judge still ordered the tweets to be turned over, Twitter stepped in. Twitter was hesitant to step in at first because they thought this case could set a precedent for requiring Twitter to take on legal fights that its users could conduct on their own. In its agreement, Twitter says that all content is user-owned and they have full rights to challenge demands for their records.