This should scare the crap out of ALL Americans. DHS wants the social media accounts of ICE critics.

[OrlandoDem2]

So the government is going after ICE critics.

Anyone believe we still have free speech? This is a non-starter if you believe in the First Amendment and the US Constitution.

Civil libertarians should be appalled. All Americans should be fearful of a government making a list of its critics so it can go after them! This should scare the shit out of every American!

This isn’t being widely reported but it should be!

We need to take back America….not in November. We need to do it right fucking now!

Snip

https://mashable.com/article/homeland-security-issues-subpeonas-to-dox-social-media-users

In the latest escalation of their efforts to push back against opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security is issuing hundreds of subpoenas to the largest social media companies, including Google, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Discord and Reddit, seeking to learn the personal information behind accounts that have either criticized ICE or alerted the general public to the locations of ICE agents, according to reporting conducted by the New York Times.

Under the conditions of anonymity, four government officials and tech employees with privileged access to these DHS subpoena requests spoke to the Times, revealing that Google, Meta, and Reddit have complied with at least some of these government requests for private information.

[mwmisses4289]

1. Is this going to give gathering steam to

the push by some in congress to impeachment noem?

[highplainsdem]

2. Here's Engadget's story about this, which I found on Reddit and was going to

post as an OP until I saw yours.

https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/homeland-security-has-reportedly-sent-out-hundreds-of-subpoenas-to-identify-ice-critics-online-135245457.html

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly been asking tech companies for information on accounts posting anti-ICE sentiments. According to The New York Times, DHS has sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta over the past few months. Homeland Security asked the companies for names, email addresses, telephone numbers and any other identifying detail for accounts that have criticized the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency or have reported the location of its agents. Google, Meta and Reddit have complied with some of the requests

Administrative subpoenas are different from warrants and are issued by the DHS. The Times says they were rarely used in the past and were mostly sent to companies for the investigation of serious crimes, such as child trafficking. Apparently, though, the government has ramped up its use in the past year. “It’s a whole other level of frequency and lack of accountability,” Steve Loney, a senior supervising attorney for ACLU, told the publication.

Companies can choose whether to comply with the authorities or not, and some of them give the subject of a subpoena up to 14 days to fight it in court. Google told The Times that its review process for government requests is “ designed to protect user privacy while meeting [its] legal obligations” and that it informs users when their accounts have been subpoenaed unless it has been legally ordered not to or in exceptional circumstances. “We review every legal demand and push back against those that are overbroad,” the company said.

Some of the accounts that were subpoenaed belong to users posting ICE activity in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania on Facebook and Instagram in English and Spanish. The DHS asked Meta for their names and details on September 11, and the users were notified about it on October 3. They were told that if Meta didn’t receive documentation that they were fighting the subpoena in court within 10 days, Meta will give Homeland Security the information it was asking for. The ACLU filed a motion for the users in court, arguing that the DHS is using administrative subpoenas as a tool to suppress speech of people it didn’t agree with.

-snip-

So this started months ago.

And they're primarily going after people posting on platforms much larger than DU, whose messages against ICE have more reach.

A Reddit post, for instance, can get hundreds of thousands of views, and thousands of recs and replies.

So DUers shouldn't panic over this news story.

[OrlandoDem2]

5. My point wasn't that DUers shouldn't panic. The point is that EVERYONE should be frightened (and outraged).

This is another example of dictatorship and we are living ir whether we post on Reddit, DU, or anywhere else.

[PatSeg]

8. "So DUers shouldn't panic over this news story"

Maybe not, but this is just the beginning. They will fail in some of their attempts, but there will always be more. They are not going to quit. We need to be very concerned.

[Blue Full Moon]

3. No matter what you still have to share and protest.

[highplainsdem]

4. Yes. Don't stop.

[dalton99a]

6. Some NYT comments:

Sam Edwards
Santa Monica, CA · Feb. 13

The evil irony of an agency that goes around in masks uses undue influence to learn the identities of those that criticize. Midterms can’t come soon enough!



FredT
Virginia Beach, VA · Feb. 13

Predicted in 2001 that the Patriot Act would turn on Ametica and threaten our freedom.



Patricia
Fairfield, CT · Feb. 13

If only the tech companies felt a sense of civic responsibility, a debt to the democracy which enabled their creation and astronomical success.

But all they see is money. As long as Trump is enabling their greed, and putting no restrictions on their operations, they will do whatever he wants.

They deserve nothing but the utmost condemnation of every patriotic American.



MjM
MA · Feb. 13

Where are the Democrats? Do we have any leaders who will denounce this with fervor? Let's have the conversation about restructuring or ending the Department of Homeland Security because this is absurd. As if the military industrial complex were not enough of a behemoth, now Americans are the enemy? Not on my dime. And I believe many if not most here would agree.



Ken
Portland · Feb. 13

Trump's America is a land where anyone who expresses disagreement with the 'Dear Leader's" policies is added to a government list of people to be targeted.

In three decades serving the USA, nearly all spent in communist and authoritarian countries, I never imagined that the USA would adopt the exact same policies that we consistently decried in other countries.

This is Trump's America.

[PeaceWave]

7. Hoo boy...Some of you are in serious trouble...