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