Birgitta Jonsdottir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, said last night on Twitter that the “usa government wants to know about all my tweets and more since november 1st 2009. Do they realize I am a member of parliament in Iceland?” She said she is starting a legal fight to stop the US getting hold of her messages. She wrote: “department of justice are requesting twitter to provide the info – I got 10 days to stop it via legal process before twitter hands it over.”

She said the justice department was “just sending a message and of course they are asking for a lot more than just my tweets.”

Jonsdottir told the Guardian she was demanding a meeting with the US ambassador to Iceland. “The justice department has gone completely over the top,” she said. She added the US authorities had requested personal information from Twitter as well as her private messages and that she was now assessing her legal position.