Twitter Sues To Defend Identity Of Anti-Trump Account

Twitter has sued the government to block an effort to make it reveal the identity of the user behind @ALT_uscis, an anti-Trump account believed to be run by at least one federal immigration employee. In a 25-page filing, Twitter cited freedom of speech as its basis for not turning over records about the account. “The rights of free speech afforded Twitter’s users and Twitter itself under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution include a right to disseminate such an anonymous or pseudonymous political speech,” Twitter wrote in its filing. Esha Bhandari, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the Twitter user, said, “We have seen no reason the government has given for seeking to unmask this speaker’s identity.” Paul Alan Levy, a staff attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group who specializes in online privacy and free speech issues, said Twitter may have a strong case that the summons was improper. “I don’t think there is any way for the government to come out of this looking good,” Levy told Reuters.