For the past several months, DreamHost has been working with the Department of Justice to comply with legal process, including a Search Warrant seeking information about one of our customers’ websites.
At the center of the requests is disruptj20.org, a website that organized participants of political protests against the current United States administration. While we have no insight into the affidavit for the search warrant (those records are sealed), the DOJ has recently asked DreamHost to provide all information available to us about this website, its owner, and, more importantly, its visitors.
DreamHost goes on to explain that, like many online service providers they receive requests from the government to help them identify criminals and other ne'er do wells quite regularly. (They also reject a number of them.)
However this is different.
The request from the DOJ demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 million visitor IP addresses — in addition to contact information, email content, and photos of thousands of people — in an effort to determine who simply visited the website. (Our customer has also been notified of the pending warrant on the account.)
That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind.
This is, in our opinion, a strong example of investigatory overreach and a clear abuse of government authority.
Is THIS what Jeff Sessions is dong to keep this country safe?
Investigating people who simply visit a site that promotes peaceful protests?
How's that investigation into the White Supremacists who beat counter protesters and ran down a young woman going Mr. Attorney General?
Or is all of your time being used up with pursuing your boss's adversaries?
Source http://ift.tt/2vDIqcn
