Trump Administration Threatened Twitter — Unmask Dissident Accounts Or Else

It's no secret that Dear Leader Trumple Thin-skin can't take criticism but this is just scary.

Recently, DT and the gang have been desperately trying to derail the #RussiaGate investigation and shift focus to an unmasking scandal narrative which now includes unsupported claims of criminal activity by Susan Rice coming from the President himself. The last few days you couldn't swing a dead cat video around the Interwebs without hitting a Fox News article claiming that Rice umasked the name of a US citizen for political purposes.

And don't get me wrong! If true, what's alleged would be a serious and concerning abuse of power.

A lawsuit filed against the adminstration by Twitter exposes an even more frightening abuse of power and one for which concrete evidence has been made available to the public. In that suit, Twitter reveals that they've been ordered to unmask the identity of a Twitter user under threat of legal action.

The Intercept - The U.S. Government Is Trying to Unmask an Anonymous Anti-Trump Twitter Account

Soon after Donald Trump’s inauguration, persons critical of the president and his administration began creating anonymous Twitter accounts claiming to be dissident members of the federal government, such as the famous “Alt BLM” and “Rogue POTUS Staff” users. Today, Twitter is filing suit against the U.S. government, exposing an attempt to expose and attack one such account.

The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, says the @ALT_USCIS Twitter account is now being targeted by the Department of Homeland Security:

On March 14, 2017, Defendant Adam Hoffman, an agent within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, transmitted to Twitter by fax a summons, ordering Twitter to produce certain records pertaining to the @ALT_USCIS account. The CBP Summons invoked as authority 19 U.S.C. § 1509. It was signed by Defendant Stephen P. Caruso, a CBP Special Agent in Charge based in Miramar, Florida. A true and accurate copy of the CBP Summons, in the form it was received by Twitter, is attached as Exhibit A.

43. The CBP Summons states that Twitter is “required” to “produce[] for inspection” “[a]ll records regarding the [T]witter account @ALT_USCIS to include, User names, account login, phone numbers, mailing addresses, and I.P. addresses.” The purpose of this request appears to be, and the effect of Twitter’s complying with it likely would be, to enable or help to enable Defendants to pierce the anonymity of the person or persons who established and use the @ALT_USCIS account.

Homeland Security further asked that Twitter keep the very existence of the summons secret, and added that “failure to comply with this summons will render you liable to proceedings in a U.S. District Court to enforce compliance with this summons as well as other sanctions.”

Twitter is suing to have the summons ruled "unlawful and unenforceable" because it clearly violates the First Amendment rights of Twitter/Twitter users who are speaking critically of the government. The ACLU has announced that they are representing the Twitter user. The complaint can be viewed here (PDF).

a reply to: whyamIhere

Relevance to thread??

Do you have any refutation to this gross overreach by the government or is your only response to post stupid off-topic pictures?

a reply to: theantediluvian

Excuse my naïveté, but why would the Customs and Border Patrol be concerned about criticism of Trump? Wouldn't it have something to do with customs and immigration?

originally posted by: cuckooold
a reply to: whyamIhere

Relevance to thread??

Do you have any refutation to this gross overreach by the government or is your only response to post stupid off-topic pictures?

Ha Ha..Trump Admin learned a new word this month.. "Unmask".

a reply to: whyamIhere

You do realize that's photoshopped right?

Here's the original photo at Getty

What are your thoughts on the federal government trying to force Twitter to reveal identifying information for a user who is tweeting things critical of the government?

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: whyamIhere

You do realize that's photoshopped right?

Here's the original photo at Getty

What are your thoughts on the federal government trying to force Twitter to reveal identifying information for a user who is tweeting things critical of the government?

I know, it's still a great image.

I'll take it down.

I know you work hard on your threads.

While I have very little love for Twitter, their policies and their generally craptacular service, I have to side with them on this one. This is a fairly sinister action by the Trump administration.

Of course the Obama and Bush administrations set the precedent for the 1st amendment being little more than a loose suggestion rather than a supreme law of the land, that does not excuse a President taking these actions when he was fairly critical about it when Obama was President.

For once I hope Twitter comes on top (and hopefully I will never, EVER have to type that phrase again).

It does really seem that Trump wants to silence anyone that disagrees with him. I guess that's good if you're a Trump supporter. Horrifying if you're everyone else.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Interesting times. The government is entangled in case of Trump and his associates whom may have been illegally "unmasked" by Rice for political reasons, yet this admin is trying to illegally "unmasked" [a] citizen for political reasons

And don't get me wrong! If true, what's alleged would be a serious and concerning abuse of power.

If true, it would be a lot more serious than just power abuse, I'm 100% sure if any of the alleged prove true, I'm sure entire new laws will be written, and maybe even the dilution of the intelligence forces.

originally posted by: underwerks
It does really seem that Trump wants to silence anyone that disagrees with him. I guess that's good if you're a Trump supporter. Horrifying if you're everyone else.

Of course, there is no evidence of that, just more projection. This guy writes mean tweets, therefor a summons from the CPB, the arm of the government tasked with preventing the entry of illegal persons and goods, is going to stifle Twitter dissent—is terrible logic.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Excuse my naïveté, but why would the Customs and Border Patrol be concerned about criticism of Trump? Wouldn't it have something to do with customs and immigration?

It's funny that you should ask that. On page 16 of the complaint, paragraphs 55-57 argue that the summons is unlawful as 19 U.S. § 1509 only authorizes the CBP to obtain records in connection to investigations involving imported goods.

Excerpted from 19 U.S. Code § 1509:

(a) Authority In any investigation or inquiry conducted for the purpose of ascertaining the correctness of any entry, for determining the liability of any person for duty, fees and taxes due or duties, fees and taxes which may be due the United States, for determining liability for fines and penalties, or for insuring compliance with the laws of the United States administered by the United States Customs Service, the Secretary (but no delegate of the Secretary below the rank of district director or special agent in charge) may—

So what it looks like is that they knew they couldn't get a warrant because the CBP has no jurisdiction to investigate what people Tweet and yet they still fired off this summons to Twitter demanding records which smacks of a deliberate attempt to deceive.

Anyone care to make an Alt-FBI profile and run their mouth a bit?

I'll mail you cookies in Leavenworth if it doesn't work out well.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope

originally posted by: underwerks
It does really seem that Trump wants to silence anyone that disagrees with him. I guess that's good if you're a Trump supporter. Horrifying if you're everyone else.

Of course, there is no evidence of that, just more projection. This guy writes mean tweets, therefor a summons from the CPB, the arm of the government tasked with preventing the entry of illegal persons and goods, is going to stifle Twitter dissent—is terrible logic.

It's actually DHS, not CBP who is pushing this, I can only assume under orders from the Trump admin.
It seems that DHS just used a CBP summons:

Furthermore, they say the tool DHS used to demand the information — a Customs and Border Patrol administrative summons — is only meant to allow CBP to demand information about imported merchandise. "It is apparent that whatever investigation Defendants are conducting here does not pertain to imported merchandise," the complaint says.

Well that's weird.

They also requested that twitter not reveal the summons, hmmmmm..

Twitter also says DHS "requested" that the company not reveal the existence of the summons. Twitter did not comply with either the summons or the request for silence — instead, the company is asking a federal court to declare the summons "unlawful and unenforceable."

www.npr.org...

Yeah, nothing weird going on here. Just go back to sleep, don't worry about the government trying to figure out who the dissidents are. That attitude has always worked so well in the past.

There is no indication that the White House was aware of the summons, which was signed by a Florida-based supervisor who works in an office that investigates employee corruption, misconduct and mismanagement.

Make sure you leave any extraneous details out.

a reply to: theantediluvian

It's interesting. I've looked through several dozen tweets by @ALT_USCIS and haven't seen a theme or instance that justifies this turn of events. There are plenty of Twitter accounts which are more critical of Trump so why is this one singled out??

Most of the tweets are links to other news sites and blogs. I'm back into February and haven't seen a tweet to justify singling them out. No leaks, only links. Something in there sparked someone to send the summons. Curious.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: theantediluvian

It's interesting. I've looked through several dozen tweets by @ALT_USCIS and haven't seen a theme or instance that justifies this turn of events. There are plenty of Twitter accounts which are more critical of Trump so why is this one singled out??

Most of the tweets are links to other news sites and blogs. I'm back into February and haven't seen a tweet to justify singling them out. No leaks, only links. Something in there sparked someone to send the summons. Curious.

I don't tweet so I can't check it out but the first thing that popped into my head on this is something lead them to believe the person behind the account was an illegal alien. As far as not revealing that there was an investigation going on, good idea to not tip your hand and allow the perpetrator to run and/or go underground. I love how many of the posters take the stance that it is about silencing someone for their political views.