People v. Harris

36 Misc. 3d 868
Criminal Court of the City of New York·Decided June 30, 2012·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Matthew A. Sciarrino, Jr., J.

Twitter, Inc. (Twitter) seeks to quash the January 26, 2012 subpoena issued by the New York County District Attorney’s [870]*870Office and upheld by this court’s April 20, 2012 order. That order required Twitter to provide any and all user information, including email addresses, as well as any and all tweets posted for the period of September 15, 2011 to December 31, 2011, from the Twitter account @destructuremal, which was allegedly used by Malcolm Harris. This is a case of first impression, distinctive because it is a criminal case rather than a civil case, and the movant is the corporate entity (Twitter) and not an individual (Harris). It also deals with tweets that were publicly posted rather than an email or text that would be directed to a single person or a select few.

On October 1, 2011, the defendant, Malcolm Harris, was charged with disorderly conduct (Penal Law § 240.20 [5]) after allegedly marching on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge. On January 26, 2012, the People sent a subpoena duces tecum to Twitter seeking the defendant’s account information and tweets for their relevance in the ongoing criminal investigation (CPL art 610; 18 USC § 2703 [c] [2]). On January 30, 2012, Twitter, after conferring with the District Attorney’s Office, informed the defendant that the Twitter account @destructuremal had been subpoenaed. On January 31, 2012, the defendant notified Twitter of his intention to file a motion to quash the subpoena. Twitter then took the position that it would not comply with the subpoena until the court ruled on the defendant’s motion to quash the subpoena and intervened.

On April 20, 2012, this court held that the defendant had no proprietary interest in the user information on his Twitter account, and he lacked standing to quash the subpoena (see CPLR 1012 [a]; 1013; People v Harris, 36 Misc 3d 613 [Crim Ct, NY County 2012]). This court ordered Twitter to provide certain information to the court for in camera review to safeguard the privacy rights of Mr. Harris.

On May 31, 2012, David Rosenblatt, a member of Twitter’s Board of Directors, was personally served within New York County with a copy of this court’s April 20, 2012 order, a copy of the January 26, 2012 trial subpoena, and a copy of the March 8, 2012 trial subpoena. Twitter subsequently moved to quash the April 20, 2012 court order. To date, Twitter has not complied with this court’s order.

Discussion

Twitter is a public, real-time social and information network that enables people to share, communicate, and receive news. [871]*871Users can create a Twitter profile that contains a profile image, background image, and status updates called tweets, which can be up to 140 characters in length on the website.1 Twitter provides its services to the public at large. Anyone can sign up to use Twitter’s services as long as they agree to Twitter’s terms. Twitter is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in California.

The Stored Communications Act (SCA) (18 USC § 2701 et seq.) defines and makes distinctions between electronic communication service (ECS) versus remote computing service (RCS), and content information versus non-content information. ECS is defined as “any service which provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications.” (See 18 USC § 2510 [15].) RCS is defined as “the provision to the public of computer storage or processing services by means of an electronic communications system.” (See 18 USC § 2711 [2].) The Wiretap Act (18 USC § 2510 et seq.) defines content information as follows: “contents, when used with respect to any wire, oral or electronic communication, includes any information concerning the substance, purport, or meaning of that communication.” (18 USC § 2510 [8].) In contrast, logs of account usage, mailer header information (minus the subject line), lists of outgoing email addresses sent from an account, and basic subscriber information are all considered to be non-content information.2

While Twitter is primarily an ECS (as discussed in Harris, 36 Misc 3d at 621-622), it also acts as an RCS. It collects and stores both non-content information such as IP addresses, physical locations, browser type, subscriber information, etc. and content information such as tweets. The SCA grants greater privacy protections to content information because actual contents of messages naturally implicate greater privacy concerns than network generated information about those communications.3

1. Twitter Users and Standing to Challenge Third-Party Disclosure Requests

Twitter argues that users have standing to quash the subpoena. The issue is whether Twitter users have standing to [872]*872challenge third-party disclosure requests under the terms of service that existed during the dates in question. In Harris (36 Misc 3d at 623), the New York City Criminal Court held that a criminal defendant did not have standing to quash a subpoena issued to a third-party online social networking service because the defendant has no proprietary interest. The court’s decision was partially based on Twitter’s then terms of service agreement. After the April 20, 2012 decision, Twitter changed its terms and policy effective May 17, 2012. The newly added portion states: “You Retain Your Right To Any Content You Submit, Post Or Display On Or Through The Service.” (See Twitter, Terms of Service, http://twitter.com/tos/ [accessed June 11, 2012].)

Twitter argues that the court’s decision to deny the defendant standing places an undue burden on Twitter. It forces Twitter to choose between either providing user communications and account information in response to all subpoenas or attempting to vindicate its users’ rights by moving to quash these subpoenas itself. However, that burden is placed on every third-party respondent to a subpoena (see In re Verizon Internet Servs., Inc., 257 F Supp 2d 244, 257-258 [2003]; United States v Kennedy, 81 F Supp 2d 1103, 1110 [2000]) and cannot be used to create standing for a defendant where none exists.

The Stored Communications Act (18 USC § 2703 [d]) states: “A court issuing an order pursuant to this section, on a motion made promptly by the service provider, may quash or modify such order, if the information or records requested are unusually voluminous in nature or compliance with such order otherwise would cause an undue burden on such provider.” (Emphasis added.)

In the defense motion they also reference a concurrence by Justice Sotomayor who said that “it may be necessary [for the court] to reconsider the premise that an individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in information voluntarily disclosed to third parties” (see United States v Jones, 565 US —, —, 132 S Ct 945, 957 [2012]). Publication to third parties is the issue. Tweets are not emails sent to a single party. At best, the defense may argue that this is more akin to an email that is sent to a party and carbon copied to hundreds of others. There can be no reasonable expectation of privacy in a tweet sent [873]*873around the world.4 The court order is not unreasonably burdensome to Twitter, as it does not take much to search and provide the data to the court.5

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

People v. Harris, 36 Misc. 3d 868 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2012).

36 Misc. 3d 868 (People v. Harris) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Facebook, Inc. v. City of S.F.
417 P.3d 725 (California Supreme Court, 2018)
Fawcett v. Altieri
38 Misc. 3d 1022 (New York Supreme Court, 2013)