The ACLU-DC is trying to stop three search warrants that’d let the Department of Justice snoop around protesters’ Facebook accounts over Inauguration Day protests. They filed in D.C. Superior Court on Thursday, saying the government’s demands violate the Fourth Amendment because they are so broad, and threatening First Amendment speech. These warrants ask for too much information not directly relevant to the federal probe, argues the ACLU. This includes information on the plaintiffs’ friends, associates, and the approximately 6000 individuals who just “liked” an anti-Donald Trump Facebook page.
Requested data would go back to Nov. 1, 2016, a week before the presidential election. “The warrants make no provision for avoiding or minimizing invasions into personal and associational/expression information, for preventing such information from being shared widely within the government, or for destroying irrelevant material when the investigation is concluded,” said the ACLU filing. In other words, this might chill First Amendment speech by giving the government means to observe anyone who were simply linked to anti-Trump protesters.
This fight stems from arrests made Jan. 20. Demonstrators came to Washington D.C. to protest President Donald Trump‘s inauguration, and over 200 ended up getting charged with felony rioting. In investigating the alleged criminality, the federal government later got three search warrants from the D.C. Superior Court against three Facebook accounts: the disruptj20 page (now known as Resist This) owned by Emmelia Talarico, and personal accounts owned by Lacy MacAuley, and Legba Carrefour. According to the ACLU, these people didn’t initially know about warrants because of a gag order. Facebook fought this gag order, which was later dropped by the government shortly before the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled on it. Talarico, MacAuley, and Carrefour hadn’t even been charged with Inauguration Day-related arrested by the US Attorney, said the ACLU.
The DOJ declined to comment.
Well on the plus side the Trump Administration seems to finally be recognizing "domestic terrorism," but on the negative side they seem to think that domestic terrorism includes people who "like" a page that says mean things about Orange Hitler.
At this point I am afraid that the outcome of all this attention being paid to Russia's use of social media to impact our election will be that the Trump Department of Justice can then use it to make Facebook and Twitter hand over user information that can then be used to go after critics of the administration.
As much as I want something to be done to protect our democracy from hostile foreign governments using social media to alter the outcome of elections, I have absolutely no confidence that Trump and his lackeys will not use any governmental control provided to them for their own nefarious plans.
After all the greatest threat to the future of this country does not reside in the Kremlin, it resides in the White House.
Source http://ift.tt/2kafNj2
