14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like the US government didn't think Twitter would fight against an abusive demand to unmask the person behind an anti-Trump account because, as soon as the company filed a lawsuit, the feds withdrew their request.
Last week it was revealed that Twitter had filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for requesting information about a parody account critiquing Trump's administration.
Twitter argued that the government's request violates the First Amendment and could have a chilling effect on all speech coming from those with special insight into the operations of the US government.
The government's reasoning for demanding Twitter to unmask the @ALT_uscis account was faulty at best as they invoked a statute that relates to taxes on the importation of merchandise in the United States. Twitter doesn't believe that's sufficient grounds to unmask a user, as the government was demanding for IP logs, phone number, mailing address, and any other information that could help them ID the person behind it.
@ALT_uscis is a reference to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and it is believed the person behind the account is a government employee who doesn't agree with Trump's administration's views on vital topics.
Shortly after Twitter filed its lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would represent whoever was behind the Twitter account.
A quick response
The US Customs and Border Protection, which is where the data demand came from, withdrew its summons for information on the account. As a result, Twitter "voluntary dismisses without prejudice all claims."
"We want to thank @twitter and @aclu for standing up for the right of free anonymous speech. Thank you resistance for standing up for us," the person behind the @ALT_uscis account wrote following news about the data demand being withdrawn and the lawsuit being dropped.
The lawsuit comes at a rather bad time. Trump's immigration policies have irked quite a few people in Silicon Valley, which was to be expected given how they always like to employ people from abroad. In fact, many of the Silicon Valley companies, Google, Microsoft, and Apple included, have taken a stand against the Trump Administration's policies in recent months.