Twitter handed over the subpoenaed tweets of an Occupy activist to a New York judge Friday, ending a months-long standoff between the social media company and the Criminal Court in Manhattan.
The tweets, written last October by Occupy activist Malcolm Harris, are not publicly available online.
Reuters reported that the Manhattan district attorney’s office hoped to use the tweets undermine Harris’ claim that police intentionally led protestors onto the Brooklyn Bridge in order to arrest them.
Harris’ tweets were handed to Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino in an inch-high stack of paper sealed in an envelope. The envelope will remain sealed while Harris’ appeal is heard in the coming week.
The move comes as a public relations blow to Twitter, which is often held up by technology futurists and free speech activists as key conduit of the free flow of information.