An ICE summons to get the user’s identity failed. Advocates worry the move to a grand jury signals an escalation of the war on dissent.

Social media giant Reddit has been ordered to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of a federal effort to unmask anonymous online critics of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

According to a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, Reddit has until April 14 to provide a wide range of personal data on one of its users, whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been trying unsuccessfully to identify for more than a month.

Attorneys for the Reddit user say their client’s posts and their anonymity are squarely protected under the First Amendment and that ICE’s use of a grand jury marks a disturbing escalation for the agency after seeing its previous efforts to investigate political speech quashed in court. The subpoena was issued by federal prosecutors in the capital after ICE’s effort to identify the same user failed in a Northern California federal court. (The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington declined to comment on the case.)

  • partofthevoice@lemmy.zip
    41·
    10 days ago

    Reddit, Meta, and Google voluntarily “complied with some of the requests” for identifying details of users critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent as part of a recent wave of administrative subpoenas the Department of Homeland Security has been distributing to Big Tech the past few months

    https://gizmodo.com/reddit-meta-and-google-voluntarily-gave-dhs-info-of-anti-ice-users-report-says-2000722279

    DHS sent hundreds of subpoenas to Google, Meta, Reddit, and Discord demanding identities of anonymous accounts tracking ICE operations.

    https://winbuzzer.com/2026/02/14/dhs-subpoenas-google-meta-unmask-ice-critics-social-media-xcxwbn/

    That implies posts that:

    • Warn people of raids in real time
    • Help people avoid ICE
    • Coordinate responses to ICE presence

    We should look for accounts that have a history like this:

    • “ICE spotted at [location] right now”
    • “Agents are at [apartment complex/business]”
    • “Avoid [street/intersection]—ICE checkpoint”

    Alternatively, it could also be something like this (though perhaps less likely):

    • “Here’s how to avoid ICE checkpoints”
    • “What to do if ICE shows up: …”
    • “Don’t open the door unless…”

    … or even aggregate statistics like this:

    • “ICE has been operating in these neighborhoods this week”
    • Maps or logs of sightings

    …

    I can’t imagine that they’re targeting this user for a reason too far off from why they targeted IceBlock, too.

    Ideally, we can create a list of most probable users to have been targeted. Then we can warn them.

    The Reddit user probably:

    • Regularly posted ICE sightings or raid warnings
    • Had a local or regional focus
    • Was followed or relied on by others

    That would corroborate with this passage:

    ICE tried to identify the user for over a month and failed then escalated to a grand jury

    That level of effort implies:

    • The account was persistent
    • The content was ongoing and impactful
    • Likely high visibility or trusted by a community

    Edit: found someone who shared the full article here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1shj6zn/a_redditor_criticized_ice_trump_is_trying_to/

    The story of how Reddit became ensnared in an ICE-related grand jury began early last month, when the company received a request to turn over the name, address, phone number, and other data associated with an account belonging to a user identified in court records as John Doe.

    … In the John Doe case, Reddit received an initial request on March 4 from an ICE agent in Fairfax, Virginia.

    … the social media company alerted John Doe of the federal request for information. Based in the Pacific Northwest, the Reddit user obtained representation from the Oregon-based Civil Liberties Defense Center

    … There was a thread from early January, after news outlets including The Intercept identified Jonathan Ross as the ICE officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis. Commenting on a Minnesota Star Tribune article, another Reddit user posted that Ross might be welcomed as a hero in Florida or Texas. John Doe responded by sharing that Ross had lived in Chaska, Minnesota; grew up in Indiana; and served in the Indiana National Guard — biographical details that were circulating widely at the time. “Hopefully he moves up to Stillwater State Penitentiary,” they wrote.

    In another post, a Reddit user asked what they should write on an anti-ICE protest sign. John Doe suggested the lyrics to a song: “Urine speaks louder than words.” In a third instance, Doe wrote, “TSA sucks and we all know it.” According to the Reddit user’s attorneys, these were the most aggressive posts they could find.