14 DAY TRIAL // The big tech companies in the United States are sick and tired of having to shut up about the secret requests they receive from the government. Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft are fighting gag orders that prevent them from disclosing the number of national security requests they receive.
This, they believe, violates the companies’ First Amendment rights to free speech. Following the NSA scandal caused by the leaked documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden and a lot of pressure from tech companies, the government has loosed up its rules and allowed them to reveal some information about the secret requests they receive.
However, the guidelines are so absurd that companies are protesting because they can only report numbers of FISA orders and National Security Letters in batches of 1,000. These companies are rightfully finding it ridiculous to include ranges such as “0 – 999” in their transparency reports.
The companies have been pushing back against the government, demanding that they’re allowed to give out exact numbers. Now, they’re extending these efforts to one extra element that comes along with most National Security Letters – the gag order, which means that the companies receiving them cannot talk about them.
“The government attempts to sidestep the serious First Amendment issues raised in this case by arguing that there is no First Amendment right to disclose information gained from participation in a secret government investigation. That is incorrect,” the companies said in the court filing.
Yahoo has said that it won’t stop fighting against the gag order. “The US Government should allow Yahoo and other tech companies to disclose more about the volume, scope and type of National Security Letters they receive,” the company stated.
Google has taken an extremely similar stance, saying that the company hopes that the court will recognize how damaging it can be when laws prevent companies from being open about government actions that can infringe on civil liberties.
The company has long since said that people have the right to know when and how governments request their information. Along with many other tech industry members, Google has even promised users that it would start informing them about these requests, even if the US government doesn’t really agree.
The NSA files have exposed the agency’s mass surveillance operations, as well as the fact that companies often receive secretive data requests that they are forced to abide by.