Twitter Sues FBI, DOJ to Release NSA Request Info

NEW YORK (AP) – Twitter is suing the FBI and the Department of Justice to be able to release more information about government surveillance of its users.

Twitter Inc. filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a California federal court to publish its full “transparency report,” which documents government requests for user information. The published report does not include national security requests because Twitter, along with other Internet companies, has been prohibited from disclosing that information.

The San Francisco-based social media company says it believes that it’s entitled under the First Amendment to “respond to our users’ concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance.”

Twitter said in a blog post that it has “tried to achieve the level of transparency our users deserve without litigation, but to no avail.”