The
online service is determined to fight back in an escalating war with
both the tech giant Google and the American government, claiming that it
is going to start legal action the day after demanding answers for the
Google’s handover of WikiLeaks’ Gmail contents to the US government.
The problem is that the targets of the
investigation weren’t informed until 2.5 years after secret search
warrants were issued and served by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
WikiLeaks claimed it would be looking at legal action not only with
Google, but also those who actually turned in the “illegal and
arbitrary” order. The whistleblowing service also insists that any
information used from the taking of documents this way should be
considered as biased and illegal and therefore can’t be used in the
proceedings.
WikiLeaks insists that was a clear violation of rights. In response,
Goggle pointed out that its policy is to tell people about government
requests for their data, except for the cases when they are gagged by a
court order. Unfortunately, this happens quite frequently. Google also
claimed that it has challenged many orders related to WikiLeaks and
pushed to unseal all the documents related to the investigation.
The problem is that WikiLeaks received the notification of the court
order from Google only before Christmas 2014 and published it online. As
for the tech giant, it insisted that the legal process was initially
subject to a nondisclosure order, which barred the company from
disclosing the very existence of the legal process. In the meantime,
WikiLeaks doesn’t even know whether Google even went to court at all,
and if it didn’t, that would not be good, because Google is expected to
litigate on behalf of its subscribers.
It is known that the Google court order targeted 3 employees of the
whistleblowing service: two journalists and a spokesperson. According to
the wide-ranging scope of the order, all email content, including all
messages (even deleted ones), drafts, login data and contact lists had
to be handed over to the US law enforcement.
WikiLeaks also pointed to Twitter as an example of best practices for
tech firms responding to government requests. The microblog notified the
target of a similar demand from the law enforcement, and the warrant in
question could be fought in court.
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