Twitter drops suit as feds end bid to unmask critics

Outcome protects rogue account’s users

Twitter dropped SAN FRANCISCO its lawsuit against the Trump administration after the government withdrew its request for the identities of those behind an anonymous account critical of the president, according to court papers filed by Twitter on Friday.

The social media giant filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security secretary John Kelly, U. S. Customs and Border Protection ( CBP) and acting CBP commissioner Kevin McAleenan.

In mid- March, CBP demanded Twitter produce usernames, account logins, phone numbers, mailing addresses and IP addresses associated with the @ ALT_ USCIS account, according to the suit.

USCIS is the abbreviation for the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, which has an official Twitter account at @ USCIS. The @ ALT_ USCIS account, which surfaced in January, is critical of the Trump administration.

Government workers have been setting up such Twitter accounts since Trump was inaugurated in order to release information and criticize government agencies.

The CBP’s demand constituted an “unlawful” use of government powers and threatened the right to free speech of Twitter users, Twitter’s suit said.

Free- speech advocates agreed. The right of people to speak anonymously is a “core” tenet of Americans’ right to free speech, says Emma Llanso, director of free expression at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a non- profit.

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