Policy & regulation
EFF, ACLU Urge Appeals Court to Curb Grand Jury Subpoenas Used to Unmask Social Media Users
The EFF, ACLU and other civil liberties and trade groups have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a sealed case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, arguing courts should curb government abuse of grand jury subpoenas aimed at unmasking social media users who criticize immigration enforcement. According to EFF Updates, the case involves a Homeland Security investigation of an anonymous Reddit user.
Digital rights and civil liberties groups are asking a federal appeals court to rein in what they describe as the government's abuse of grand jury subpoenas used to unmask social media users who criticize immigration enforcement, according to EFF Updates.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil liberties and trade groups filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a sealed case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the EFF said.
According to the EFF's account, the case stems from a government investigation of an anonymous Reddit user who commented on a post about an immigration officer in Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security first issued an administrative subpoena to Reddit in an effort to unmask the user, the EFF said.
The groups argue that the appeals court should curb the use of such subpoenas to expose the identities of people who speak critically about immigration enforcement online. The EFF characterized the subpoenas as targeting users who criticize what it described as lawless immigration enforcement.
Because the case is sealed, public details remain limited and the parties involved have not been identified. The EFF's Deeplinks post did not provide further specifics beyond the description of the brief and the underlying investigation.
Source: EFF Updates
