NSA Forces E-mail Service to Shutdown
Lavabit was a Texas-based encrypted email service provider. It is the service believed to be used by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden to invite human rights activists and lawyers to a press conference. The service suddenly shut down Thursday night. The letter posted by the founder of Lavabit did not explain exactly why the service shutdown; however, it is assumed they received notice from the NSA forcing Lavabit to hand over all e-mails in an unencrypted format. When the NSA issues such a notice, it also comes with a gag order restraining the service provider from freedom of speech.
The letter from Lavabit founder on shutting down:
My Fellow Users,
I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on–the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.
What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.
This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.
Sincerely,
Ladar Levison
Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC
