The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has withdrawn from a fight to unmask the owners of Instagram and Facebook accounts monitoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in Pennsylvania.
One of the anonymous account holders, John Doe, filed a lawsuit to prevent ICE from identifying him and other critics online through subpoenas to Meta that he said infringed on core activities protected by the First Amendment.
DHS initially fought Doe's motion to quash the subpoenas, arguing that the community watch groups endangered ICE agents by posting “photos and videos of agents' faces, license plates, and weapons,” among other things. This appeared to be “threatening ICE agents to impede the performance of their duties,” DHS alleged. DHS's arguments echoed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who argued that identifying ICE agents is a crime, even as Wired noted that ICE employees often post easy-to-find LinkedIn profiles.
According to Doe, the agency seemed intent on testing the waters to see if it could seize the authority to expose any critics online by invoking a customs statute that allows agents to subpoena information about goods entering or leaving the US.
But then, on January 16, DHS abruptly changed course and withdrew its subpoenas from Meta.
A lawsuit confirmed that DHS withdrew its requests for subscriber information last week after initially requesting zip code, country, any registered email address(es), date the account was created, registered phone numbers, IP address at account sign-up, and IP address and account access date stamps logs.
The filing does not explain why DHS decided to withdraw its requests.
However, DHS previously requested similar information from Meta about six Instagram community watch groups that shared information about ICE activities in Los Angeles and other locations. DHS also withdrew those requests after account holders defended their First Amendment rights and filed motions to quash their subpoenas, according to Doe's court filing.
