Google, Facebook Among Those Preparing To Sign Court Filing In Support Of Apple

Silicon Valley's biggest names are preparing to raise their level of support for Apple in its fight with the FBI by filing an industry-wide 'friend of the court' brief next week.

Multiple sources confirmed to FORBES that Google and Facebook were among the companies prepared to add their names to the joint filing, which is expected to unequivocally support Apple's position. Earlier news reports also included Twitter . The support comes on the heels of Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith telling lawmakers in Congress on Thursday that he "wholeheartedly supports Apple."

The industry's embrace of Apple's position represents a shift from last week, when many of Apple's rivals were criticized for what sounded like a muted response to Apple CEO Tim Cook's open letter to customers, in which he vowed to fight the FBI's demands.

"I think it's fair to say there's an extraordinary amount of support for Apple right now," said Andrew Bridges, a partner at the law firm Fenwick & West LLP who has represented Google in the past. Bridges said he was in touch "with a number of companies" interested in signing onto a brief supporting Apple, but declined to say which ones.

The deadline to file an amicus curiae brief in the case is March 3. Apple has continued to resist a recent demand by the FBI made in court that would require the company to write software that would make it easier for law enforcement to hack into the phone of one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack. On Thursday Apple filed a motion to vacate the court order that has served as a flashpoint in Silicon Valley's ongoing disagreement with Washington over access to customer data contained in smartphones.

"It's moving so fast," Bridges said of the situation late Thursday, adding that he was not currently representing Google, but that that could change between now and next week. "The reality is with an amicus brief, I don't know who is signing on until about five minutes before I file it. It's almost like a ballot box."

Some of the companies supporting Apple were working on their own briefs before Microsoft made its position clear Thursday morning, according to a source close to the situation. After the announcement, the feeling among some of those companies was that they would join together in a single brief, rather than write their own individual filings.

Support in the tech industry hasn't been uniform, however. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates appeared to break rank on Tuesday when he appeared to side with the FBI, saying the government was "not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case." Gates, in a subsequent interview, said his remarks were misconstrued, adding that the dispute should be resolved by the courts and that it represented an opportunity for Congress to tackle the underlying issues.

Privacy advocates say the case has the potential to set precedent that would open the door for the government to take a similar approach to hack into other devices. Apple, meanwhile, is said to be working on a new design of the iPhone that would make it impossible for the company's engineers to do that.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation are among the groups preparing their own briefs in support of Apple. The EFF's filing will argue that the government's request amounts to a violation of the First Amendment.

"It’s well established that computer code is protected under the First Amendment," EFF staff attorney Andrew Crocker said Thursday.