Facebook, Twitter can't be forced to turn over private data in San Francisco murder case
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram cannot be forced to relinquish the private social media communications of a murder victim and a witness in a San Francisco (CA) murder and gang prosecution, a state appeals court ruled. In a decision that appears to break new ground, the San Francisco-based 1st District Court of Appeal sided with Facebook and Twitter, which had argued that federal privacy laws trump a criminal defendant's right to such protected social media information in pretrial proceedings.
The appeals court noted that the defendants might have a right to the material at trial, but that social media companies such as Facebook and Instagram should not be forced to abandon federal privacy protections earlier in a prosecution. Major criminal justice groups had urged the court to side with the gang defendants, saying the constitutional right to a fair trial outweighs the force of the federal law, known as the Stored Communications Act. In siding with Facebook and Twitter, the court observed that the legal system is increasingly facing such tough questions involving social media that can pit one right against another. "Use of social media, in its myriad of forms, has become ubiquitous in our society," the appeals court wrote. "Evidence gathered from social media is becoming equally ubiquitous in our courtrooms."
Facebook, Twitter can't be forced to turn over private data in San Francisco murder case