DHS wants Google, Meta, and Reddit to rat out people posting against ICE

DHS demands data on anonymous accounts

The Department of Homeland Security has sent hundreds of subpoenas to Google, Meta, Reddit, and Discord in recent months, looking to put names to anonymous social media accounts. The targets?

People who criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement or shared locations where ICE agents were working. The subpoenas seek names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other identifying details.

Four government officials and tech employees shared the information with the New York Times.

These subpoenas skip the courtroom entirely

Administrative subpoenas work differently from regular warrants. A judge never has to sign off.

DHS can write and send them directly to tech companies on its own.

The agency cited two federal laws as its authority: one tied to immigration enforcement and another originally written for customs investigations of imported goods.

The subpoenas can’t pull email content, search history, or location data, but they can force companies to hand over login times, IP addresses, and device details.

DHS says the goal is officer safety

DHS says the subpoenas help the agency look into threats against its officers and obstacles to enforcement operations. In court filings, DHS lawyers argued the requests protect agents in the field.

A DHS spokesperson said the agency has “broad administrative subpoena authority” but did not answer questions about how many subpoenas it has sent or how wide the effort reaches.

DHS has described some ICE-tracking accounts as safety risks to federal agents.

Tech companies handled requests differently

Google, Meta, and Reddit turned over data in some cases, according to the New York Times. Some companies gave affected users 10 to 14 days to fight back in court before releasing anything.

Google said it reviews each request to balance privacy with legal requirements and tells users when their accounts get subpoenaed.

Meta said it reviews every government request one by one and pushes back on those it sees as unlawful or too broad. Discord has not publicly shared how it responded.

Pennsylvania ICE-watch accounts drew attention

One known target was “Montco Community Watch,” a pair of Facebook and Instagram accounts that posted bilingual alerts about ICE activity in Montgomery County, Pa. The accounts launched in June 2025 and built a following of about 10,000 people.

On Sept. 11, 2025, DHS asked Meta for the name and contact information behind the accounts.

Meta told the account holders on Oct. 3 and said it would hand over their data unless they fought back in court within 10 days.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed to block the subpoena, and DHS pulled it before any judge could rule.

A Long Beach protest account fought back

DHS also went after @LBProtest, an anonymous Instagram account in Long Beach, Calif., that helped people find community events, protests, and posted political takes.

DHS claimed the account’s posts about ICE raids in Los Angeles amounted to harassment of federal agents. The ACLU of Northern California filed to block the subpoena on Sept. 18, 2025.

DHS withdrew it before a court could weigh in. The ACLU called the withdrawal a win for the right to document law enforcement in public.

A retiree got a visit after emailing DHS

In October 2025, DHS sent Google a subpoena for information about a man who had emailed the agency to criticize how it handled a high-profile asylum case.

The man, listed as “Jon Doe” in court records, had read about the case in the news and wrote to DHS urging “common sense and decency.”

About two weeks after he learned of the subpoena, two DHS agents and a local police officer showed up at his home to question him.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania challenged the subpoena, and DHS withdrew it in early February 2026.

Civil liberties groups call the effort unlawful

The ACLU called the subpoenas “part of a broader strategy to intimidate people who document immigration activity or criticize government actions.”

The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sent an open letter to 10 major tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and TikTok, urging them to demand court review before complying and to warn users before handing over data.

The ACLU pointed out that in every known case where someone challenged a subpoena, DHS backed down rather than defend it before a judge.

The government tried this before in 2017

This isn’t a new move. In March 2017, a Customs and Border Protection agent sent Twitter a summons demanding records on @ALT_USCIS, an anonymous account critical of Trump administration immigration policies.

The summons cited the same customs statute DHS uses now. Twitter sued the next day, arguing the law only covers imported goods, not critics.

CBP withdrew the summons within 24 hours.

The DHS inspector general later found a “widespread lack of understanding” among employees about the limits of that statute, noting it had been used in cases with no connection to customs at all.

A broader pattern reaches beyond subpoenas

The subpoena campaign fits into a wider picture. In late January 2026, Meta started blocking links to a website that compiled names of about 4,500 DHS employees from public records.

In October 2025, Apple pulled the ICE-tracking app ICEBlock from its App Store after Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the administration asked Apple to remove it.

In February 2026, Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, demanded the Justice Department turn over all communications with Apple and Google about the app removals.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) also filed a lawsuit against Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that same month.

Everyday users face real risks too

Administrative subpoenas are one of the most common ways law enforcement asks tech companies for user data. Google received about 28,600 subpoenas from all sources in the first half of 2025.

Meta got about 14,500 during the same period. Those numbers don’t break down by agency or purpose, so the public can’t tell how many come from DHS or target political speech.

Fighting a subpoena takes a lawyer and a fast court filing, and most people can’t afford either on short notice.

DHS has not said what comes next

DHS has not publicly said whether it plans to keep sending these subpoenas.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a motion in February 2026 asking the federal government to pay its legal fees for what it calls baseless attempts to access client data.

The EFF and ACLU continue to press tech companies to require court review before complying. Companies can choose whether to comply, since administrative subpoenas don’t carry a court order behind them.

The FIRE lawsuit and Raskin’s investigation could shape how the government deals with tech platforms on these issues going forward.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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