Snowden’s e-mail provider is closing, cannot legally say why

By Andrea Peterson, Published: August 8 at 5:23 pm

The e-mail service used by National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden is suspending operations. And they can’t tell us why — although this cryptic post heavily suggests it has something to do with a government request for information:

Zitat

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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.

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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.

Lavabit was created by a group of Texas programmers who had concerns about privacy protections in Gmail. Snowden used their encrypted e-mail service, and the 6-week timeframe suggests that Snowden’s own account might be at issue.

--snip--

More coverage at: Lavabit email service abruptly shut down citing government interference

Thank you for posting.