The Trump administration is trying to force Reddit to reveal the identity of an online ICE critic

The Trump administration has been characterized by its persecution and punishment of those who do not support its anti-immigration campaign. In this context, the government is demanding that the social media platform Reddit provide the data of one of its users who posted messages critical of the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Lauren Regan, an attorney with the Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC), the Oregon-based organization that has taken on the “redditor”’s defense, denounces this as yet another case of this Administration’s attack on freedom of expression: “Everything points to this being a large-scale, indiscriminate raid, a violation of both the Fourth and First Amendments to the United States Constitution, which guarantee, respectively, our right to privacy and our right to freedom of speech.”

Freedom of speech can only be limited when there is an imminent threat, but Regan claims that none of his client’s Reddit posts fall into that category. The most controversial post appears to be one that retweeted another user’s post about the federal agent who fatally shot U.S. citizen Renée Good in Minneapolis in January. After the media identified Jonathan Ross as the agent who shot Good, the redditor, identified in court records with the generic name John Doe, shared a post stating that Ross had lived in Chaska, Minnesota, grown up in Indiana, and served in the Indiana National Guard—biographical details that were widely circulating at the time. “Hopefully he moves up to Stillwater State Penitentiary,” the post read, according to The Intercept, which broke the story.

“We fail to understand why the federal government would single out an individual like this, dedicating all the resources and effort they are investing to it. Our only hypothesis is that if this person is being persecuted by the government because of their statements, then anyone else who expresses criticism of the current administration or immigration control policies in public forums—such as Reddit or Meta—could also become a target,” Regan argues.

Requests to digital platforms for identification purposes are not uncommon, but this case stands out because the subpoena, issued by the Washington, D.C., Attorney’s Office, is before a federal grand jury. “It’s the step prior to the federal government filing criminal charges. Therefore—and this is important—it’s not simply an immigration enforcement measure; it’s something different. They are conducting an investigation—or trying to obtain authorization—to bring federal criminal charges against someone, someone whose identity we don’t know,” explains David Greene, senior legal advisor at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization specializing in digital rights that has defended similar cases in court.

A federal grand jury is a group of 16 to 23 citizens who secretly determine, without a judge present, whether there is “probable cause” to believe that a federal crime has been committed and, therefore, to issue a formal indictment. Grand jury proceedings are often favorable to prosecutors, since the panels generally only hear the evidence presented by the prosecution.

Reddit had until April 14 to provide the personal information of its user, but the deadline has been extended to Friday. ICE agents have been unsuccessfully trying to identify John Doe for over a month. In March, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, filed an administrative subpoena in California, traditionally used for serious crimes such as child trafficking, to unmask his identity. Reddit notified the user, and his defense filed a motion to dismiss it. The agency eventually withdrew its request. In their second attempt, they have opted for a federal grand jury. As The Intercept explains, the second time around, instead of requesting information on an individual user, the government ordered Reddit itself to appear before a grand jury — not in California, but in Washington D.C.

The protests over the cases of Good and Alex Pretti, another citizen shot and killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis, triggered the release of the identities of many ICE agents, whose data is compiled on a website called ICE List, created by Dutch citizen Dominick Skinner. The list includes the names of some 2,000 officials, and the Department of Homeland Security has denounced the persecution and risk that agents face for being identified.

Appearing before a grand jury is a delicate matter for Reddit, which claims to defend freedom of speech and protect its more than 120 million users. In an emailed response to EL PAÍS, the company stated that “privacy is fundamental to the operation of Reddit, and we take our commitment to protecting it very seriously. We do not voluntarily share information with any government, much less information about users exercising their right to criticize the government or organize protests. We assess the legal sufficiency of each request and routinely oppose requests that are overly broad or that threaten civil rights. When the law requires us to disclose data, we provide only the minimum information necessary and notify the user whenever possible so they can defend their interests.”

Since Trump returned to the White House, the company has seen a surge in user identification requests. Between January and June, it received 12% more user information requests from government agencies and law enforcement around the world. Of the 1,179 requests, 66% came from U.S. agencies, including 423 subpoenas and 27 court orders. Reddit disclosed user data in 82% of those cases.

Most requests relate to child safety, but those related to other types of investigations have increased. Disclosure of Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) may include: the account holder’s email address; IP addresses; phone number; and financial information associated with the account.

The number of citations related to immigration enforcement has increased under the current administration. “It wasn’t common before, but in the last eight months it’s become very common,” Greene says. “Many of the citations we’ve seen have targeted groups that monitor ICE activities, whether it’s reporting on the agency’s operations in their area or organizing support for migrants.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition