Social Cues: The US government attempted to identify the people behind the anti-Trump Twitter account @ALT_uscis. Twitter is fighting back.
The Trump administration ordered Twitter to reveal the identity behind this anonymous account.
Twitter is suing the US government to prevent the Trump administration from forcing it to reveal who’s running an anti-Trump account.
Social Cues is our look at what people are talking about across Twitter and Facebook.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Twitter says an arm of the Department of Homeland Security used a « limited-purpose investigatory tool » in an effort to unmask the identity of the person or people behind @ALT_uscis , an account that criticizes the administration’s management of US Citizenship and Immigration Services .
The account is one of dozens of « alternative » government agency accounts that sprung up after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the country’s 45th president. Other alt-accounts include AltUSNatParkService , which bills itself as « The #Resistance team against #AltFacts #FauxNews #FauxScience , » and RogueNASA , « The unofficial « Resistance » team of NASA. »
According to the suit ( PDF ), US Customs and Border Protection , another part of the DHS, issued on March 14 a summons to Twitter demanding the social network release records that would lead to the account’s owners. The company says the order is unlawful and must be dismissed.
« Permitting CBP to pierce the pseudonym of the @ALT_uscis account 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, » Twitter wrote in its suit.
