Overview
- In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security issued hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Meta, Reddit and Discord seeking names, emails, phone numbers and other identifiers for accounts that criticized ICE or reported the locations of its agents.
- Google, Meta and Reddit complied with some requests, and companies say they review government demands and, when allowed, notify targeted users with roughly 10 to 14 days to contest them in court.
- Justice Department counsel said in court that DHS views the requests as within its authority to investigate threats to ICE officers and obstacles to their work.
- The ACLU has filed motions on behalf of targeted users, and DHS has at times withdrawn subpoenas before judicial review, including a request for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania ICE-tracking accounts that was pulled two days after a January 14 hearing.
- Related actions include Meta blocking links to the ICE List website in late January and Rep. Jamie Raskin requesting Apple and Google communications about ICE-tracking app removals as congressional scrutiny intensifies.