• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Social-media companies Reddit and X have been subpoenaed by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, due to multiple users’ reported posting of social media content critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts. 

According to Bloomberg, which spoke with the attorneys representing the targeted users, the Justice Department is seeking their personal information, including full names, addresses, and banking information. 

Both users learned about the subpoenas from the websites, which gave them a short window of time to challenge the government's demands in court, before the companies have to provide whatever information they have to the DOJ.

The subpoenas, however, did nor say which laws their comments had violated specifically.

The targeted users, who first learned about the subpoenas from Reddit and X, have yet to be informed of specific charges but can challenge the government’s demands before the social-media companies comply with the government.

The lawyers representing the users believe the charges could relate to assumed threats against ICE officers and the potential that their personal identities could be revealed. In general, they have called the Justice Department’s probing an intimidation tactic.

The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency for ICE, has already sent out hundreds of subpoenas to social media companies and tech giants, including Google, Reddit, Discord, and Meta in relation to critics of ICE and its masked officers. 

The Reddit user now being targeted by the DOJ received a grand jury subpoena, which indicates a criminal investigation. 

According to the user’s lawyer, Lauren Regan, who is a co-leader of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, some of the posts were as simple as "expletive ICE." Joshua Koltun, the lawyer representing the X user, told Bloomberg that his client made a sarcastic post about donating to the officer who shot and killed protester Renee Good in Minnesota, with the officer’s address attached.

“The post does not contain a trace or an inkling that any violence was intended,” Koltun said. 

Prior to targeting individual social media users with regard to anti-ICE posts, the Trump administration went after ICE-tracking platforms by approaching technology companies like Meta and Apple. 

While ICE officers’ anonymity has raised concerns across the country with California, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington blocking masked enforcement, the Trump administration ordered Apple to remove ICEBlockin October.

Then, in January, Meta began blocking users from sharing links to ICE List -- a database that archives the names of ICE agents -- on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Recently, the administration also added “anti-technology extremists” to its list of domestic surveillance targets. 

The Reddit and X users recently subpoenaed by the DOJ have requested that the subpoenas be thrown out. A federal judge is currently assessing the requests.