The truth is no matter what service you use on the internet they have terms and conditions and in those terms and conditions it will state that they reserve the right to pass on information to the law enforcement agencies when they are requested if the situation warrants it.
Now with the latest privacy and legal issues surround an internet company being Twitter we have seen them actually standing up to the courts in order to give their users warning to the fact they are giving over the information so they are capable to get their defence in order. Now what is wrong or right with this is not what we are looking into as I read this article from the Guardian I started to really think about the bad press Twitter had been receiving for giving up users information.
Yes the internet is one of those things that because doesn’t stay in one country it is available world wide and we have covered this that laws from one country might not be the same in the other and could effect the content produced. The problem with Twitter is the fact that it is just a platform where you send out information as a comment, which means does that mean its gossip? In the UK we have something called freedom of speech so we are able to say what we want within reason to friends. The argument with that is Twitter is the same to that but the only problem is its on a public scale.
Twitter is a minefield because it doesn’t meet conventional media outlets, but have you ever stopped to think that if Twitter has this issue what about WordPress.com and Google which was brought to light in the article had given out information to the authorities without causing a fuss and you would of thought they meant not notifying the owner of those accounts. Although I must stress that we do not know that for fact.
So in your opinion should these big companies go to court on your behalf if you break a law or should you be held responsible?
Or more importantly should the companies warn you before they give out the information to the authorities?
My answer would be they should warn you and you should take responsibility for what has been published. However this also depends on the nature of the law you have broken and whether it directly applies to you according to where you live.