Twitter suing the government over order to reveal user behind anti-Trump account

The Twitter bird.
(Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

In response to a summons sent to Twitter by the Department of Homeland Security that demanded the company disclose the identity of the user behind the anti-President Trump @ALT_USCIS account, Twitter filed a lawsuit against the agency, saying the request violates the user's free speech.

"Alternative" accounts started popping up right after Trump's inauguration, when the National Park Service re-tweeted an image that showed the much larger crowd at President Obama's first inauguration compared to Trump's. Trump was reportedly angry about the tweet, and the park service apologized. This led users who claimed to be either current or former federal employees to launch accounts like @ALT_USCIS and @alt_labor, which tweet their often critical opinions on Trump's policies and actions, with @ALT_USCIS often condemning Trump's stance on immigration.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.