FIRE statement on the government’s attempts to unmask Reddit critic

Today, The Intercept reported that the federal government is ordering Reddit to appear before a grand jury in connection with the anonymous speech of a user who criticized the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement tried to identify a user based in the Pacific Northwest without success. They approached Reddit, demanding identifying information on the user and refusing to specify the posts that caught ICE’s attention. Reddit has not identified the user.

Reddit’s own attorneys reviewed the user’s posts for any speech not protected by the First Amendment, and found none. 

The following statement can be attributed to Will Creeley, FIRE legal director.

Government critics are not suspects and free speech is not a crime. The First Amendment protects our right to criticize the government anonymously — an American tradition that dates back to the founding. So far, the government hasn’t been able to point to a single Reddit post that’s not protected by the First Amendment. 

Not one.

By putting the administration’s feelings above the First Amendment, government agents are sending a deliberate message to each of us: Don’t criticize us — or else.

How we respond to this chilling moment matters. Today, lawmakers from both parties are busy promoting age-verification laws that would force each of us to reveal our identity before we speak online. If lawmakers had their way, the Reddit user would already be standing in court just for expressing his or her beliefs. 

Who knows how many of us would be hauled up next?

FIRE podcast: Anonymity from the founding to the digital age