The US justice department has asked Twitter to release information it holds on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, centre. Photograph: Bertil Ericson/AFP/Getty
Other individuals targeted in the subpoena issued to the micro-blogging site including Bradley Manning, the US army intelligence analyst suspected of handing classified information to WikiLeaks, and member of parliament in Iceland who is also a former WikiLeaks volunteer.
The whistle-blowing website said it suspected other US internet companies were also being ordered to hand over information about its activities.
"If the Iranian government was to attempt to coercively obtain this information from journalists and activists of foreign nations, human rights groups around the world would speak out," Assange said in the statement today.
A copy of the court order, dated 14 December and posted to Salon.com, said the information sought was "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation" and ordered Twitter not to disclose its existence to Assange or any of the others targeted.
The order was unsealed "thanks to legal action by Twitter", WikiLeaks said.
Twitter has declined comment on the claim, saying only that its policy is to notify its users, where possible, of government requests for information.
Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Icelandic MP named in the subpoena, told the Guardian that she was starting a legal fight to stop the US getting hold of her Twitter messages.
Jonsdottir said she was demanding a meeting with the US ambassador to Iceland, and accused the justice department of going "completely over the top".
"It is completely unacceptable for the US justice department to flex its muscles like this. I am lucky, I'm a representative in parliament. But what of other people? It's my duty to do whatever I can to stop this abuse," she said.
In Iceland she has championed the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative which is aimed at creating legislation to make Iceland a legal haven for journalists and media outlets.
The US is also seeking details about Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and US programmer Jacob Appelbaum, both of whom have previously worked with WikiLeaks.
In a Twitter message the MP said she had "no intention to hand my information over willingly".
Gonggrijp praised Twitter for notifying him and others that the US had subpoenaed his information. "It appears that Twitter, as a matter of policy, does the right thing in wanting to inform their users when one of these comes in," Gonggrijp said. "Heaven knows how many places have received similar subpoenas and just quietly submitted all they had on me."
Appelbaum's Twitter feed suggested he was travelling in Iceland, and said he was apprehensive about returning to the US. "Time to try to enjoy the last of my vacation, I suppose," he tweeted.
Last July, he was interrogated for three hours and had his phones confiscated upon entering the country at Newark airport. Customs officials photocopied receipts and searched his laptop.
WikiLeaks said it suspected that other websites, including Facebook and Google, had also been served with court orders, and urged them to "unseal any subpoenas they have received".
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