Att has several buildings in key areas of the country that “listen” to every call that passes through their network by means of software to pick up on key phrases and words provided by the three letter agencies that are interested by way of the patriot act. What legislative perks T gets from this is unknown, but I would bet very lucrative. T also provides transport for over 95% of all non local call traffic in this country at some point during that call’s journey. They also have a contract for maintaining a robust “wired” network with multiple diverse routes for the entire DOD’s needs just in case their primary mode of communication goes down. Lots of money flowing into T from the fed. They’ll do just about anything asked by your President.No telephone company is obligated to listen to your conversations and advise the authorities if you are believed to be doing unlawful things. It may have worked that way in the GDR with the STASI, but we are not quite there yet (I hope). Twitter should be no different, its just a text party line.