The Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. wrote in an April decision, “By design, Twitter has an open method of communication,” noting that in its Privacy Policy Twitter informs users that what “you say on Twitter may be viewed all around the world instantly.” \(Read More: Why Twitter Will Live and Facebook Will Die.\)





He argued that “the user is granting a license for Twitter to distribute that information to anyone, anyway, and for any reason it chooses.”

It seems that social media accounts have no legal protection — he doesn’t specify how much information social media companies must share. Click here to read the April decision.

This all started with an arrest during an Occupy Wall Street protest last year. (Read More: For Occupy Wall Street, Rain, Crows and Career Advice.)

Early in 2012 prosecutors asked Twitter for information about a protestor, Malcolm Harris. Twitter told Harris about the subpoena, and he filed a motion to quash it. Then in April the Court denied Harris’ motion and told Twitter to comply with the subpoena. In May Twitter filed a motion to oppose that order. In June the court denied Twitter’s motion. And here we are in August, and Twitter appealed that decision and filed motion again.

Twitter’s legal counsel Ben Lee tweeted yesterday: “Twitter users own their Tweets. They have a right to fight invalid government requests, and we continue to stand with them in that fight.”

Twitter users aren’t the only ones paying attention to this battle, which is sure to drag out into next year. The ultimate ruling could impact millions of users not just of Twitter, but also all the other social platforms.

—By CNBC's Julia Boorstin

@JBoorstin

Questions? Comments? MediaMoney@cnbc.com