FX.co ★ Twitter sues U.S. government over spying

Twitter, a popular online microblog service, unveiled its plans to sue the U.S. government over surveillance laws. The firm said it brought the case in an effort to force the intelligence agency and law-enforcement authorities to be more transparent about personal data requests. Twitter brought the action against the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a northern California court. Twitter is certain the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of users to know an exact number of inquiries, in particular from the U.S. National Security Council. In April, Twitter submitted a Transparency Report to the U.S. government for publication; however, so far officials have denied the firm's request to share the full report with the public. Twitter argues that such rules violate the right to free speech granted by the Constitution. "It's our belief that we are 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 US government surveillance," Benjamin Lee, Twitter's lawyer, wrote in a blog post. Meanwhile, a lot of software developers and owners of network services are taking steps to circumvent U.S. government requests by encrypting user data in a manner that puts it beyond the reach of law enforcement. Hi-tech companies fear a drop in demand and rising discontent among users. Nowadays, the Justice Department and FBI forbid disclosure of exact numbers of requests.