Twitter Is Suing The Government Over Order To Unmask Anti-Trump Account
The company is refusing the government’s demands to reveal the user behind the @ALT_uscis account.
Twitter Inc has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection over an order to reveal the identity of a user behind an account that has been critical of Trump, Reuters reports.
The @ALT_uscis account (CIS refers to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) is one of several "alternative" accounts that claims to be run by an employee of the federal government and tweets information that criticizes Trump and his policies. The account's description refers to it as "immigration resistance."
"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 on Thursday.
After the lawsuit was made public, the @ALT_uscis account tweeted out a copy of the First Amendment and a picture of a portion of the lawsuit. The account also tweeted that I had gained 17,000 followers in 30 minutes.