The Trump administration has reportedly subpoenaed the social media platform Reddit to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of its greater effort to identify a Reddit user who posted information and criticisms about an immigration enforcement officer.
In a subpoena issued at the end of March, first obtained and reported on by The Intercept, the government gave Reddit until April 14 to appear before a grand jury and to provide personal information about an anonymous user, identified only as John Doe in court filings.
For more than a month, Department of Homeland Security officials have been trying to identify the Reddit user who posted information about Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot Renee Good, as well as criticisms about Ross and the government.
So far, their efforts to obtain such information, through an administrative subpoena, have been unsuccessful.
But the reported existence of a grand jury subpoena marks a significant escalation by the government in using all legal tools to pursue action against anonymous social media users.
Grand juries are convened by prosecutors or courts to determine whether there is enough evidence to charge a person with a crime, which is known as an indictment. Grand jury proceedings are secret and often favorable to prosecutors because panels generally hear only evidence from plaintiffs.
It’s unclear what charges the administration is hoping to bring forward, or against whom, in the alleged grand jury in D.C.
But Reddit was reportedly informed of the grand jury summons just days after DHS officials failed to execute an administrative subpoena for the Reddit user and withdrew its request.
In a statement to The Intercept, Reddit said, “Privacy is central to how Reddit operates, and we take our commitment to protecting that seriously. We do not voluntarily share information with any government, especially not on users exercising their rights to criticize the government or plan a protest.”
Reddit added that it always reviews the demands for “legal sufficiency” and “routintely object to requests that are overbroad or threaten civil rights.” It said it always tries to inform users whenever possible and that it provides the “minimum” data required.
In mid-February, an ICE special agent in Fairfax, Virginia, filed the original subpoena to Reddit demanding it reveal the name, address, telephone number, IP address and other details of John Doe’s account under the authority of a statute related to tariffs.
Reddit informed John Doe of the summons, which he said made him “alarmed and fearful.”
The Civil Liberties Defense Center, a nonprofit that provides legal services, represented John Doe in seeking to quash the subpoena. Lawyers for the group disputed the statute’s authority, claiming it dealt only with imports and exports. John Doe filed a sworn declaration stating that he and his Reddit account had nothing to do with exporting or importing goods.
At the end of March, DHS withdrew its subpoena.
“Reddit – or any social media platform for that matter – should protect its users’ personal information,” John Doe said in a statement.
“The U.S. and state constitutions guarantee the right to freedom of association and speech. The bonds we form through the associations we make and the speech we share form the fabric of our society. When the government attempts to control speech and association through targeted surveillance, it is not only an attack on our civil rights, it is an attack on who we are as people,” he added.
The initial attempt by the Trump administration to file an administrative subpoena to obtain information about the Reddit user is nothing new. Government officials have been using this legal tool to try to identify social media users who post criticisms of ICE or “doxed” officers.
Google, Meta, Discord and Reddit have received hundreds of administration subpoenas from DHS over the course of several months, the New York Times reported in February.
Free speech advocates raised an alarm at the reported existence of the grand jury.
Will Creeley, the legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in a statement: “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,” Creeley added.
The Independent has asked Reddit and the Civil Liberties Defense Center for comment.
