Twitter Publicly Praised After Standing Up for Political Critics

In 2010 Twitter was applauded for standing up for two anonymous users who were frequent critics of Pennsylvania Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett. When Twitter received a subpoena from Pennsylvania prosecutors seeking the identities of the users, it notified the users and gave them a chance to object rather than immediately complying with the demand. The demand was withdrawn after the incident received substantial press coverage and the ACLU intervened. Twitter emerged as one of the heroes of the story for giving its users an opportunity to defend their anonymity.