Demand for Twitter details in Wikileaks probe upheld
The three users of the social network had appealed against an earlier ruling.
Their legal team had argued the request was a violation of their constitutional rights of free speech and association.
The judge ruled that those freedoms do not shield members from complying with legitimate government investigations.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the rights group which represented the Twitter users, said they planned to appeal against the ruling.
The three people concerned are Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and US computer programmer Jacob Appelbaum.
A law that allows investigators to procure electronic data without a search warrant was invoked to demand information from the accounts of several Twitter users who are associates of Julian Assange.
The government order did not relate to Twitter messages but rather it sought to obtain internet protocol (IP) addresses and account details.
Government lawyers argued that that law, which only required that authorities demonstrate a reasonable belief in the information's relevance, is routinely used in criminal investigations like the Wikileaks probe.
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