The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday, claiming in the lawsuit that the agencies never responded to public records requests tied to the use of administrative subpoenas to quell online free speech.
The nine-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia calls for the expedited processing and release of records “concerning the agencies’ use of administrative subpoena authority…to compel technology companies and internet service providers to disclose the identities and personal information of anonymous social media users and others who have criticized or monitored immigration enforcement activities.”
It alleges that individuals and accounts targeted by the federal government include community watch pages monitoring ICE activity, social media users sharing information about immigration enforcement operations, attendees at political protests, and persons who communicated directly with DHS officials.
EFF purports that one documented instance resulted in a subpoena being issued to Google within hours after a private citizen sent an email to an ICE attorney, with federal agents appearing at the individual’s home.
The suit follows recent legal efforts by the federal government to use administrative subpoenas to unmask online social media users critical of the Trump administration and, more specifically, its handling of immigration-related affairs.
Military.com recently reported how DHS, ICE subpoenaed the popular platform Reddit, which has roughly 121 million global users, due to a currently anonymous user posting rather innocuous remarks. The free speech case could go as far as being heard in front of a grand jury, which would reveal the user’s identity.
Military.com reached out to DHS and ICE for comment. A DHS spokesperson provided the same remarks, verbatim, as it did earlier this month regarding a specific case involving Reddit.
“Any allegation DHS and its components are attempting to ‘squash’ free speech is categorically FALSE,” the statement said. “This subpoena was initially issued as part of an investigation into threats and doxxing of ICE law enforcement officers.
“Our law enforcement officers are on the frontlines arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists. They are experiencing coordinated campaigns of violence against them and facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats.”
Details of the Lawsuit
EFF Deputy Legal Director Aaron Mackey told Military.com on Wednesday that the lawsuit is spurred by an initial request sent March 13, 2026, to DHS, ICE by the nonprofit digital civil liberties organization.
Not only did EFF never receive the records they requested, they did not even receive an acknowledgement of said request.
“We asked that it be expedited because of the sort of ongoing use of these administrative subpoenas, that we thought it was important that the public get these records and that we could disclose them so people could understand what's happening here,” Mackey said. “We received no response to either the substance of the request or a request that it be expedited.”
When asked about never receiving an acknowledgement, Mackey said even the most basic of responses to such requests is customary through methods like the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
However, not in this case. He said these types of cases are increasing, referencing “a noticeably public uptick” in the number of administrative subpoenas that have been issued and used in this manner compared to the first Trump administration.
He said EFF was aware of one similar case in 2017 when Twitter (now X) received a subpoena and then filed suit to quash it, resulting in the government essentially withdrawing the subpoena altogether.
“But we've not seen it used since,” he added. “So, the fact that it's being used now—and not only that it's being used, but the companies are complying or in some circumstances users who got notice are able to go to court and then the agencies are withdrawing the subpoenas—it's very troubling.”
He called it part of “a broader effort” on the government’s behalf to use legal means to try to identify or retaliate against individuals who are critical of immigration policies, promoting a “dangerous and chilling” effect against online users who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.
Social Media Companies' Roles in Free Speech Cases
The social media companies also possess some culpability in these ongoing First Amendment fights, Mackey said. These include well-known brands with billions of daily collective users, including Amazon, Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok and X.
A Reddit spokesperson touted the platform’s transparency and efforts to curb legal threats, from the federal government or otherwise, telling Military.com earlier this month that the company takes the privacy of its global user base extremely seriously, calling it “central to how Reddit operates.”
Mackey said all companies “can and should be doing more.”
He pointed to how EFF last week asked California’s and New York’s attorneys general to investigate Google for deceptive trade practices for not notifying users before giving their data to law enforcement. That correspondence cited the case of a doctoral student who was targeted with an ICE subpoena after briefly attending a pro-Palestine protest.
“We sent an open letter and engaged in some dialogue with these companies demanding that they actually give much greater scrutiny to the use of these subpoenas and that they protect these users and recognize that they're being sent in ways that violate their users' First Amendment rights,” he said, adding that promises made regarding free speech should be promises kept.
He also mentioned a separate situation in which an EFF client’s information was disclosed, and that individual only learned about it after the fact.
“We think that violates Google's own promises, right?” he said. “We've asked the attorneys general in the respective states to investigate what we think is deception by Google, by saying that they would do one thing and then not doing it.
“They promise users that they'll give them notice so that the users have the opportunity to challenge it themselves if the company's not going to, and then they fail to do so.”
The protection of First Amendment rights coincides with consumer protection laws, Mackey added, considering how big many of these companies are, how much money they have, and how they could do more realistically to protect users that contribute to the platforms’ success.
Confidence in Courts
Mackey and EFF still have confidence in the legal system and the courts that are overseeing such cases.
He referenced how EFF and the ACLU of Northern California in February jointly wrote to Amazon, Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Reddit, SNAP, TikTok and X to ask that they insist on court intervention and an order before complying with a DHS subpoena—including giving users as much notice as possible when they are the target of a subpoena, allotting for time to seek legal counsel.
“In one of the hearings,” Mackey said, “The judge was like, ‘Why do you think this statute authorizes this type of process for this type of information? Give me a case. There's no case that supports this. Give me some legal theory.’
“It was really sort of pushing the government, and immediately after they withdrew the subpoena. … The courts are not even reaching the sort of First Amendment issues that these users have raised, and have just sort of been asking more about the statutory basis or the lawfulness of the ability for the government to issue these types of demands—and whether they're even legal.”
It also means that these companies have to be pushed harder, and in multiple ways, to properly address these concerns and gives users the benefit of the doubt—legal or otherwise, Mackey added.
"We want to try to attack this problem in multiple ways and not just leave it to an individual user to have to fight the government," he said.
