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The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by X Corp. on whether Elon Musk’s social media company can publicly disclose how often the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies demand it turn over private user information as part of their national security investigations.
Lawyers for X had argued it was “critical” that the nation’s highest court take the case to create clear standards for how tech companies can speak out about government surveillance of their users, Reuters reported. In rejecting the appeal, the justices allowed to stand a lower court ruling that FBI restrictions on what X can publicly reveal does not infringe on the First Amendment protections of free speech under the U.S. Constitution.
Musk wrote on X Monday, “Disappointing that the Supreme Court declined to hear this matter.”
“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,” X’s lawyers had written in their petition.
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The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The company, then known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit in 2014 during the Obama administration after former National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 leaked files on U.S. spying and surveillance operations and fled to Russia. Notably, Musk did not take over Twitter until October 2022.
Amid public outcry over some of the findings of the leak, the U.S. government granted requests from Twitter, Google, Microsoft and Meta to soften restrictions on how often the tech companies could release data about what the government sought in national security investigations, according to Reuters.
Elon Musk reacted to the Supreme Court declining to hear the appeal Monday. (Marco Ravagli/Future Publishing via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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A revised policy implemented in 2014 allowed the companies to disclose in broad ranges, rather than exact figures, how often federal agencies demanded user information as part of those probes.
Twitter wanted to go further to reveal the exact number of times in a prior six-month period the government sought that information, submitting a draft of the so-called “Transparency Report” to the FBI for review. The FBI, however, determined that the number and frequency of subpoenas and orders and related information was classified and any release of the specific details would harm national security.
FBI headquarters building in Washington D.C., on July 3, 2023. (elal GüneÅ/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
In 2015, Congress enacted the USA Freedom Act, codifying that depending on the type of report, companies could disclose government demands for user information, know as National Security Letters under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in increments of as large as 1,000 or as small as 100.
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In 2020, a federal judge ruled in Twitter’s lawsuit against Trump administration Attorney General William Barr that “no more narrow tailoring of the restrictions can be made.” In March 2023, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision, ruling that the “government’s restriction on Twitter’s speech is narrowly tailored in support of a compelling government interest.”
