Google asks court to lift gag order

Google has sharply challenged the US government’s gag order on its internet surveillance programme, citing what it described as a constitutional free speech right to divulge how many requests it receives from the government for data about its customers in the name of national security.

The move came in a legal motion filed in the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and is aimed at mending Google’s reputation after it was identified this month as one of nine US internet companies that gave the National Security Agency access to data on its customers.