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Could Electronic Communication Cooperatives Protect Us?

Juan Cole 11/12/2011

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Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of parliament in Iceland, has written a column in which she complains that the US Department of Justice asked Twitter to turn over her private account information to the US government, without so much as seeking a warrant. She points out that any similar request for her hard copy land mail would have needed a court warrant.

So why doesn’t a request to Twitter to spy on us for the US government need any due process?

And why should we trust private US corporations with our private correspondence and information, when so many of them have proven cowardly in the face of a little DoJ pressure?

What I don’t understand is why someone could not create the equivalent of an email and social media cooperative, which would be like a credit union in the banking sector. Users would be co-owners instead of subscribers and the whole thing could be set up with a Terms of Service that clearly stated that all members have an expectation of privacy from the government in the absence of a court warrant.

Is this technically and legally feasible?

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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