Trump Admin Attacks Reddit to Get User's Data that Speak Out Against Him?
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What is the main issue with the Trump administration's approach to Reddit users?
All right. This MAGA regime likes to flood the zone. And thankfully, there are so many incredible journalists in the United States doing incredible work exposing the fascism and the erosion of civil liberties. And here to discuss his reporting with me is Ryan Devereaux. He's an investigative journalist and fellow at Type Media Center. He's out with an incredible piece uh for the intercept titled a redditor criticized ice trump is trying to unmask them by dragging the company to a secret grand jury and he's here to discuss it with us ryan welcome to ihip news this is really disturbing and there's just so many stories out there that i want to highlight how just a random redditor can be in the crosshairs of this fascist regime
Well, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, we published a story last week on The Intercept, which looks at this case that you described where a person had been posting on Reddit. The government didn't identify exactly what the offending post was, but their lawyers have surmised that it was likely to do with ICE.
How has the Trump administration escalated its tactics against digital media companies?
and the shooting of Renee Goode in Minneapolis. A bit of backstory over the past year since the Trump administration came in, they've been sending a ton of what are known as administrative subpoenas to different digital media companies. The big social media companies, Meta, X, and Reddit. and requesting data on anonymous accounts that post related to immigration enforcement. These are accounts that are sometimes tracking ICE operations in the streets, naming agents who are often masked. The government claims that this is doxing and that this is a threat to officer safety. But in a lot of cases, what we've seen are instances where individuals seem to be doing nothing more than venting about their frustration with the federal government, and they get hit with one of these subpoenas.
In this particular case, it originated in the Northern District of California. An ICE agent from Virginia had requested information and about a month's worth of really extensive electronic data on a user.
What role do civil liberties advocates play in resisting ICE subpoenas?
The agent didn't say exactly what had tipped them off, what caused this. Reddit alerted, which they often do in these sort of instances, the user that there had been a request for their data. The user then contacted a group called the CLDC. It's a center for civil liberties defense, civil liberties defense center in Northern California in the district where these tech companies are based. They filed a motion to quash this administrative subpoena. What these advocates have found is that when they actually enter these motions to quash in federal court, ICE is generally backing down in these cases. So when people get representation, when they say, hey, we're going to fight this, ICE has been backing down.
but what happened in this case that is as far as we can tell maybe the first instances instance of this happening is that that motion was filed the lawyers the defense attorneys the civil liberties advocates received an email from an assistant u.s attorney there in the northern district of california saying hey we're withdrawing this request for data and just a few days later four days later Reddit receives a grand jury subpoena, not in Northern California, but in Washington DC, not from an ICE agent, but from an assistant US attorney, a federal prosecutor in the capital.
What does the grand jury subpoena from Washington DC signify?
And they're calling not this individual Reddit user to appear before the grand jury, they're calling the company itself to turn over this data. So what civil liberties advocates, privacy advocates are saying is that this indicates indicates a significant sort of escalation in what the administration is doing targeting the companies themselves and the very existence of a grand jury subpoena, a federal grand jury subpoena out of the capital suggests the possibility of a potential significant criminal case sort of centering around this free speech activity. Many would argue we don't know what the substance of this case is because grand juries are incredibly secret, but we know that its existence suggests something serious.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main issue with the Trump administration's approach to Reddit users?
0:05–1:14
2
How has the Trump administration escalated its tactics against digital media companies?
1:14–2:22
3
What role do civil liberties advocates play in resisting ICE subpoenas?
2:22–3:45
4
What does the grand jury subpoena from Washington DC signify?
3:45–4:52
5
How does Reddit's privacy protection compare to other tech companies?
4:52–6:08
6
What are the implications of targeting anonymous accounts critical of immigration enforcement?
6:08–7:14
7
How is the current crackdown on free speech linked to national security policies?
7:14–8:31
8
What are the prospects for resistance against the Trump administration's tactics?
8:31–19:29
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from IHIP News
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