(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The FBI secured a surveillance victory on Monday as the Supreme Court denied Elon Musk’s appeal to disclose the total number of government-spied Twitter accounts stemming from a 2014 case initially filed under the previous Big Tech platform leadership.
As reported by the Verge, the Court declined to hear X Corp. V. Garland, maintaining a 2023 lower court decision that found the FBI did not violate Twitter’s First Amendment when it barred the company from disclosing the extent of its contentious surveillance activities.
Twitter’s attorneys had urged the justices to take up the case, emphasizing the broader implications of the lower courts’ ruling stemming from the case initially filed in 2014.
In a filing, the attorneys stated, “History demonstrates that the surveillance of electronic communications is both a fertile ground for government abuse and a lightning-rod political topic of intense concern to the public.”
They added, “It is critical that the standards for when and how entities may speak about the extent of governmental surveillance be clear, settled, and constitutionally adequate. Further review is warranted.”
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Edward Snowden had unleashed damning evidence that exposed the draconian nature of the federal government’s spying efforts.
However, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected Twitter’s appeal. “The panel acknowledged that Twitter has a First Amendment interest in commenting on matters of public concern involving national security subpoenas,” the appeals court wrote in the case previously named Twitter, Inc. V. Garland.
The appeals court also cautioned against disclosing the number of targeted accounts, claiming such an act “would risk making foreign adversaries aware of what is being surveilled and what is not being surveilled—if anything at all.”
Though Musk hasn’t publicly commented on the case, he has previously voiced criticism of the FBI and advocated for reforms.
In response to author and movie director Dinesh D’Souza’s Police State film on October 4, 2023 Musk remarked, “The FBI needs a thorough reform.”
Similarly, Musk said in on July 13, 2023: “I don’t think the FBI should be defunded, but there is clearly need for reform.”
The FBI needs a thorough reform https://t.co/jRRB0lnJTr
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2023
