The Department of Homeland Security is wielding administrative subpoenas - legal demands that bypass judicial oversight - to force tech companies into revealing the identities of anonymous social media users critical of the Trump administration. The controversial tactic has ensnared Instagram accounts documenting ICE raids and even a retiree who emailed a government lawyer, raising First Amendment alarms as Silicon Valley giants face mounting pressure to comply with politically charged data requests.
The Department of Homeland Security is demanding Silicon Valley hand over data on Trump administration critics, deploying a legal tool that sidesteps the courts entirely. In at least five documented cases over recent months, DHS investigators issued administrative subpoenas to Meta and Google - self-signed legal demands that require no judge's signature - to unmask anonymous social media accounts and ordinary citizens voicing dissent.
The most prominent case involves @montcowatch, an Instagram account run by an anonymous user in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, that shares resources about immigrant rights and posts about local ICE enforcement activity. Homeland Security lawyers sent Meta an administrative subpoena demanding the account owner's personal information, citing an unverified tip that ICE agents were being stalked. Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan declined to tell TechCrunch whether the company complied with the demand or received related requests.
The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the @montcowatch operator, fired back that recording police activity and sharing it anonymously is constitutionally protected speech. DHS withdrew the subpoena without explanation. But this wasn't isolated - at least four other Instagram accounts publishing content critical of government immigration enforcement faced identical subpoenas, all withdrawn after lawsuits were filed.
