Twitter has withdrawn a lawsuit against the federal government after the government dropped its summons for the social media company to “unmask” the individuals behind an anonymous account critical of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“On April 7, 2017, counsel for Defendants from the Department of Justice contacted counsel for Twitter, to advise that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has withdrawn the summons and that the summons no longer has any force or effect,” a short court filing Friday said in part. “Because the summons has now been withdrawn, Twitter voluntary dismisses without prejudice all claims against Defendants in the above captioned matter.”
On Thursday, Twitter sued the Department of Homeland Security, and specifically U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its leadership, for requesting identifying information for the individuals behind the @ALT_USCIS account, which posts critical commentary on the government’s handling of immigration and other issues.
Twitter accused the government of potentially violating its and the account holders’ rights to free and pseudonymous speech, and said that the summons for information sent to them by CBP had contained nothing more than “boilerplate language” with no specific evidence of a criminal or civil offense.
H/t Michael Scarcella.
