14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter is fighting back against the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security tried to get the company to reveal who was behind a particular anti-Trump account.
Filed in California, the suit Twitter filed reveals that US Customs and Border Protection attempted to use a "limited-purpose investigatory tool" to figure out who the owner of the @ALT_USCIS account was. According to the complaint, the account was used to express public criticism of the Department and the current administration, much like many other "alt" or "rogue" government accounts that appeared after Trump became president.
It seems that @ALT_USCIS may be a dissenting member of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which, of course, bothered some. Mid last month, Twitter was hit with a summon from Customs asking for records that could reveal the identity of the person behind the account, including IP logs, phone number, mailing address and any other details.
Twitter is having none of that and has filed a suit against the Department of Homeland Security, its subagency, naming the DHS Secretary John Kelly, acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, and the two special agents who issued and served the order.
Bigger issue than one account
The microblogging platform wants a judge to rule whether or not Customs has the legal authority to issue such a request regarding someone's account. The order Twitter got served with invoked a statute that's related to taxes on the importation of merchandise in the US, which Twitter doesn't believe is sufficient to unmask a user.
In fact, the company says that doing so "would have a grave chilling effect on the speech of that account in particular and on the many other 'alternative agency' accounts that have been created to voice dissent to government policies." It would also infringe on the right to political speech, which is protected by the Supreme Court rulings. The account @ALT_USCIS also tweeted a fragment of the American Constitution regarding freedom of speech to make a point.
The ACLU has decided to support Twitter in the case.