NEW YORK — The Trump administration has backed down from a request to Twitter to identify users behind an account critical of the president, the American Civil Liberties Union and Twitter said Friday.

Twitter said it was notified by the Justice Department that the Department of Homeland Security has withdrawn its demand for information about the account in question, @ALT_uscis, CBS News justice reporter Paula Reid reports.

The ACLU called the shift a “big victory for free speech and [the] right to dissent”:

BREAKING: Trump administration backs down from unconstitutional push to unmask @ALT_uscis. Big victory for free speech and right to dissent. — ACLU National (@ACLU) April 7, 2017

Twitter had defied the U.S. government request for records that could identify users behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump, taking steps to challenge that order in court.

The company filed a 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.” Twitter declined to comment beyond the lawsuit on Thursday. DHS likewise declined to comment.

The alternative federal government

The name of the account, @ALT-uscis, is 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 representing the account declined to discuss anything about the person or people currently involved in the account being targeted by the Trump administration.

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“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 had not 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 was not the first time Twitter 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.</s>NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter defied a U.S. government request for records that could identify users behind an account opposed to President 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 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.”

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.

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.

Associated Press writer Amy Taxin contributed to this report from Santa Ana, California; AP technology writer Michael Liedtke contributed from San Ramon, California.</s>Twitter on Thursday sued to block an order by the U.S. government demanding that it reveal who is behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump's tough immigration policies.

Twitter cited freedom of speech as a basis for not turning over records about the account, @ALT_uscis. The account is claimed to be the work of at least one federal immigration employee, according to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court.

The acronym USCIS refers to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the account describes itself as "immigration resistance." Trump has vowed to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and has promised to deport millions of illegal immigrants.

Following Trump's inauguration in January, anonymous Twitter feeds that borrowed the names and logos of more than a dozen U.S. government agencies appeared to challenge the president's views on climate change and other issues. They called themselves "alt" accounts.

Twitter spokesman Nick Pacilio declined to comment on whether the government had demanded information about other accounts critical of Trump.

Twitter, which counts Trump among its active users, has a record of litigating in favor of user privacy.

"The rights of free speech afforded Twitter's users and Twitter itself under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution include a right to disseminate such anonymous or pseudonymous political speech," Twitter said in the lawsuit.

The Department of Homeland Security, which is a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment on pending litigation. The Justice Department, which typically represents federal agencies in court, and the White House had no immediate comment.

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a statement that it was a waste of resources to try to uncover an anonymous critic, and he called on the Homeland Security inspector general to investigate who directed the "witch hunt."

Esha Bhandari, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the Twitter user, said the government's request was highly unusual. Requests for social media account information from the U.S. government typically involve national security or criminal charges, she said.

"We have seen no reason the government has given for seeking to unmask this speaker's identity," Bhandari said, adding that the right to anonymous speech against the government is "a bedrock American value" strongly protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Shortly after the lawsuit became public, @ALT_uscis tweeted a copy of the First Amendment and a picture of part of the lawsuit. The account's followers nearly tripled to 89,000 in the hours after the news broke.

For weeks the account has posted criticism of the administration. It tweeted a parody of the game bingo for "right-wing idiots," said that some anti-immigration advocates must have been dropped on their heads at birth, and mocked Trump for not giving more of his wealth to charities.

Twitter said it received an administrative summons last month demanding that it provide records related to the account.

A copy of the summons filed with the lawsuit says the records are needed for an investigation to ensure compliance with duties, taxes and fines, and other customs and immigration matters.

It was not immediately clear how the anonymous account fit into those laws and regulations, and Twitter said the summons was an abuse of a law meant to be used to investigate imported merchandise.

Twitter might have a strong case that the summons was improper, said Paul Alan Levy, staff attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, who specializes in online privacy and free speech issues.

"I don't think there is any way for the government to come out of this looking good," Levy said.

There is no indication that the White House was aware of the summons, which was signed by a Florida-based supervisor who works in an office that investigates employee corruption, misconduct and mismanagement. The supervisor could not be reached for comment.

The summons requested, but apparently did not order, that Twitter keep the document private.

The social media company has a history of challenging government demands for information on its users, including a 2012 demand from New York prosecutors about an Occupy Wall Street protester. In that case, Twitter was forced to hand over tweets from the protester to a judge who threatened the company with sanctions, and the protester pleaded guilty of disorderly conduct.

Twitter sued the U.S. Department of Justice in 2014, seeking permission to publicly disclose more information about requests it gets from U.S. authorities for information about its users.

The lawsuit was partly dismissed last year.

Among the lawyers representing Twitter in the latest case is Seth Waxman, a former high-ranking Justice Department official under President Bill Clinton.</s>SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Social media giant Twitter has refused to turn over the identity of a user who tweets posts critical of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency and the Trump Administration’s immigration policy, according to a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court.

In the suit filed by the San Francisco-based company, Twitter claims a CBP administrative summons asking for information about the author or authors of posts on the account — @ALT_USCIS (ALT Immigration) – is illegal.

The summons asked Twitter to turn over “all records regarding the Twitter account @ALT_USCIS to include, User names, account login, phone numbers, mailing addresses and I.P. addresses.”

The company claimed that speech on a Twitter page is protected by the First Amendment and that turning over the identity of the author or authors would be a violation of those rights.

Since President Donald Trump’s election, Twitter says, several sites it labels as ‘Alternate Agency” accounts have sprung up.

Accounts like @RougeNOAA, @RougeEPAStaff, @ALT_CDC, @blm_alt and @alt_labor. All are critical of those government agencies.

The accounts “are named and self-described by their users in a manner that both (a) identifies the particular agency that the user seeks primarily to criticize and with which the user purports to have significant knowledge,” according to the lawsuit.

Twitter said in its two months of existence, @ALT_USCIS, has attracted more than 32,000 followers and issued thousands of tweets.

The account was created the same day that Trump issued his first immigration executive order.

The users, Twitter said, go to great lengths to hide their identity because many may be employees of those federal departments and fear retribution for voicing their objections.

Twitter has asked the court to force the CBP to show that “some criminal or civil offense has been committed, that unmasking the users’ identity is the least restrictive means for investigating an offense, that the demand for this information is not motivated by a desire to suppress free speech.”

For its part, the CBP has threatened further action against the social media giant if it does not comply with the summons.</s>NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter defied a U.S. government request for records that could identify users behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump, and is challenging the order in court.

The company filed a lawsuit 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 violated the First Amendment.

Twitter says its users have a constitutional right to disseminate such “anonymous and pseudonymous political speech.”

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.

Twitter declined to comment beyond the lawsuit. DHS likewise declined to comment.</s>Twitter Inc on Thursday refused to reveal the user behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies and said it was challenging the demand for records by the U.S. government in court, according to a lawsuit. The lawsuit over the account @ALT_uscis, claimed to be run by at least one federal immigration employee, was filed in federal court in San Francisco, where Twitter is based. The acronym CIS refers to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the account’s description refers to itself as “immigration resistance.”

Following Trump’s inauguration in January, anonymous Twitter feeds voicing concerns at more than a dozen U.S. government agencies appeared to challenge the president’s views on climate change and other issues. Trump has vowed to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and has promised to deport millions of illegal immigrants. “The rights of free speech afforded Twitter’s users and Twitter itself under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution include a right to disseminate such anonymous or pseudonymous political speech,” Twitter said in the lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment on pending litigation. The Justice Department, which typically represents federal agencies in court, also declined to comment. Esha Bhandari, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the Twitter user in the case, said the government’s request was highly unusual. Requests for social media account information from the U.S. government typically involve a pressing national security or criminal matter, she said.

“We have seen no reason the government has given for seeking to unmask this speaker’s identity,” Bhandari said, adding that the right to anonymous speech against the government is “a bedrock American value” strongly protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Shortly after the lawsuit became public, @ALT_uscis tweeted a copy of the First Amendment and a picture of part of the lawsuit to its 45,000 followers, an increase of about 12,000 in a few hours. Twitter said it received an administrative summons last month demanding that it provide records related to the account.

A copy of the summons filed with the lawsuit says the records are needed for an investigation to ensure compliance with duties, taxes and fines and other customs and immigration matters. It was not immediately clear how the anonymous account fit into those laws and regulations. The social media company has a history of challenging other government demands for information on its users, including a 2012 demand from New York prosecutors about an Occupy Wall Street protester. In that case, Twitter was forced to hand over tweets from the protester to a judge, and the protester pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

Twitter sued the U.S. Department of Justice in 2014, seeking permission to publicly disclose more information about requests it gets from U.S. authorities for information about its users. The lawsuit was partly dismissed last year. Among the lawyers representing Twitter in the latest case is Seth Waxman, a former high-ranking Justice Department official under President Bill Clinton.</s>Twitter is suing the US government in an attempt block an order forcing it to reveal the identity of an anonymous anti-Trump account.

The @ALT_uscis account, which has over 120,000 followers, is dedicated to attacking Donald Trump's immigration policies, in particular plans for a border wall with Mexico.

It is one of a number of "alt" accounts for US government agencies that claim to be run by anonymous employees in the departments themselves, in this case United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Twitter said that the US government ordered Twitter to unmask the account in March under powers designed to tackle the import of counterfeit goods, demanding information such as the account's phone number and IP addresses.

It is suing the Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection to block the order, saying it is an abuse of its powers and that forcing it to reveal who is behind @ALT-uscis would violate free speech.</s>on Friday dropped its lawsuit against the U.S. government that had sought to block the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to identify who is behind a Twitter account critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, according to a court filing.

That came after the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection division withdrew its summons to the social-media company demanding the information, according to Twitter’s federal court filing.

Twitter had sued the Trump administration Thursday over attempts by the DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to discover the identity of the user or users behind @ALT_USCIS, which has criticized the immigration policy of the current administration since it was created in January 2017.

In a tweet Friday, ALT_USCIS thanked Twitter and the ACLU for their support in fighting the government’s probe.

The lawsuit, which Twitter filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, had alleged that the DHS tried to use a “limited-purpose investigatory tool” to find out who is behind the account in question.

“The rights of free speech afforded to Twitter’s users and Twitter itself under the U.S. Constitution include a right to disseminate such anonymous or pseudonymous free speech,” the company said in the lawsuit.</s>Twitter: US backs down on seeking anti-Trump user records

NEW YORK - Twitter says the U.S. government backed down on a request for records that could identify users behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump.

 

As a result, Twitter is withdrawing a federal lawsuit that challenged the government's request. Twitter charged Thursday that efforts by the government to "unmask" the people behind the account violate the First Amendment.

 

The account in question is ALT_uscis , a reference to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office. The account, which is frequently critical of Trump administration policy, described its users to The Associated Press in February as employees and former employees of the agency.

 

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the immigration agency, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.</s>The legal battle between Twitter and the U.S. government ended Friday, after the Department of Homeland Security withdrew its demand that the tech company release information to identify an account holder whose tweets are critical of President Donald Trump on Twitter.

The lawsuit threatened to become a major battle over free speech between Silicon Valley and Washington. But it was over almost before it began. The tech company had filed a lawsuit Thursday to protest the order, saying that it violated the user’s First Amendment right to free expression. But Twitter dropped its suit Friday, saying in a court filing that “[because] the summons has now been withdrawn, Twitter voluntary dismisses without prejudice all claims.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twitter filed the suit to protect the identity of a user who runs the @ALT_uscis feed — an account that purports to tweet the thoughts of a federal worker from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The two-month-old account is often critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, particularly its plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico and its immigration travel ban.

Legal experts said that Twitter would have had a strong case had it gone to court, as the government had not provided compelling information on why it was necessary to identify the critic.

The government, in order to enforce its subpoena, would have had to demonstrate that whoever is behind the Twitter account was likely violating some law. There also were serious questions about whether the type of subpoena used, which is typically for investigating violations of export rules, was appropriate for the type of case DHS was probing, experts said.

Courts also have traditionally given a high degree or protection to political speech, including the right to speak anonymously or with a pseudonym. That includes, in many circumstances, government employees who are critical of the agencies for which they work.

“This is just, as best as I can tell, the government trying to figure out who is expressing criticisms, and that is chilling,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

If the goal was to quiet the dissent, it seems to have failed. The number of followers for the Twitter account grew from “over 32,000” to more than 150,000 in less than 24 hours.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Thursday called the government’s attempt to unmask the identity of the Twitter user a “witch hunt.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the user, celebrated its quick victory. One of ACLU’s attorneys said in a statement that the speed with which the government withdrew the request shows how problematic its demand was.

“Speaking anonymously about issues of the day is a longstanding American tradition, dating back to when the framers of the Constitution wrote under pseudonyms,” said Esha Bhandari, one of the attorneys. “The anonymity that the First Amendment guarantees is often most essential when people criticize the government, and this free speech right is as important today as ever.”

The person behind @ALT_uscis did not respond to a request for comment sent over Twitter. But the user did thank Twitter and the ACLU, tweeting:

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 U.S. Department of Homeland Security withdraws its order that Twitter unmask a user whose tweets are critical of President Donald Trump following the company's court filing to block the order on constitutional grounds.