Twitter
Defies U.S. Government Order to Reveal Its Users
from
POPULAR MECHANICS
Twitter defied a U.S.
government request for records that could identify users behind an account
opposed to Donald Trump, and is challenging that order in court.
The company filed its
lawsuit Thursday in a San Francisco federal court against the federal
Department of Homeland Security and its Customs and Border Protection office,
charging that their efforts to "unmask" the people behind the account
violate the First Amendment.
Twitter said its users
have a constitutional right to disseminate such "anonymous and
pseudonymous political speech." It declined to comment beyond the lawsuit.
DHS likewise declined to comment.
THE "ALTERNATIVE" FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
The account in
question is @ALT_uscis , a reference to the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services office. The account described its users to
The Associated Press in February as employees and former employees of the
agency.
In a Thursday
interview, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer now representing the
account declined to discuss anything about the person or people currently
involved in the account being targeted by the Trump administration. Documents
supporting the Twitter accountholder's right to speak anonymously online will
be filed in the next few days, said Esha Bhandari, a staff attorney for the
ACLU.
"We think it's
very important for the user's interests to be represented as well," Bhandari
said. "The First Amendment requires the government to have a very
compelling reason for unmasking someone's identity. That is important or people
would be chilled from speaking out, particularly when they are speaking out
against the government."
The government so far
hasn't specified a reason for wanting to know the identity or identities behind
the Twitter handle.
In the two months of
its existence, the account has been critical of the Trump administration's
immigration policies and "highlighted what the user views as a history of
waste and mismanagement within USCIS and DHS," according to the lawsuit.
It is one of dozens of
rogue Twitter accounts purporting to represent current or former federal
employees that have sprung up since Trump took office. Other such
"alternative" - or "alt" - accounts include @Alt_CDC for
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and @AltUSEPA for the
Environmental Protection Agency. The latter dubs itself "The Unofficial
'Resistance' team of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
WHAT HAPPENED?
Twitter said it
received a summons on March 14 demanding that it provide records that would
unmask the @ALT_uscis account, such as user names, account login phone numbers,
mailing addresses and computer IP addresses.
The faxed summons -
from an agent at Customs and Border Protection - ordered Twitter to produce the
records on March 13, the day before Twitter received it, according to the suit.
In its lawsuit,
Twitter claimed the government cannot compel the company to disclose users'
identities without first meeting several tests. It must prove that a criminal
or civil offense has been committed, that it's not asking for information with
the intent of suppressing free speech, and that the interests of the
investigation outweigh the First Amendment rights of Twitter and its users,
Twitter said.
But the federal
agencies and other defendants "have not come close" to demonstrating
any of this, the lawsuit states.
"We are very
heartened that Twitter is standing up for its users and making such
full-throated defense of their free-speech rights," Bhandari said.
OTHER LAWSUITS
This is not the first
time Twitter has filed suit in defense of its and its users' First Amendment
rights.
In 2012, the company fought back
against a court order compelling it to turn over basic user information and
tweets from an Occupy Wall Street protester. The protester later pleaded guilty
to disorderly conduct. The posts had been public.
In 2014, Twitter sued the U.S. government
(under President Barack Obama) seeking to publish its full "transparency
report" outlining government requests for information.
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