A Secret Grand Jury Is Seeking the Identity of a Reddit User Who Criticized ICE
www.jezebel.com
Reddit itself has been subpoenaed by a secret Washington grand jury, with the government wanting to know the identity of a specific user.

Reason number 5,386 to delete your Reddit account and encourage your friends & loved ones to do the same.

    • HellieSkellie@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      930·
      17 days ago

      man i fuckin hate the us government. Do y’all really say shit like “pedonald” unironically though

      do y’all say that shit and be like “heh yeah i got his ass”? do y’all say shit like “The Orange Menace” and think it’s the fuckin bomb dot com?

      you old ass freaky mfs got that truth social energy going on. Y’all say some corn ball facebook auntie garbage and act like it’s tuff with two F’s

      Can y’all act like normal human beings instead of this weird ass insulated secluded sector of the radicalized internet for a sec big dog like damn

      slaughter conservatives and behead authority figures, stop this busted ass middle school style name calling though holy fuck

  • Manjushri@piefed.socialEnglish
    1101·
    16 days ago

    OP’s headline does not match the article linked in any way. I don’t know if the site changed the article or what, but the Grand Jury has not ordered Reddit to turn over any data.

    a subpoena issued by federal prosecutors to the management of Reddit, representatives of the site have been ordered to appear before a grand jury in Washington D.C., with an April 14 deadline set in an attempt to compel Reddit to volunteer personal data and the identity of a user who had the temerity to lightly criticize Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the platform.

    Essentially, they have ordered Reddit to send representatives to be badgered into volunteering the user’s information.

    • mechoman444@lemmy.worldEnglish
      381·
      16 days ago

      These kinds of posts and titles on Lemmy are a serious issue that I’ve noticed over the last 6 to 7 months.

      There appears to be a serious issue with moderation and a lot of Lemmy subs.

      I’m not calling for any Reddit styled moderation here. Absolutely not. I’m just saying something needs to happen here to better moderate these subs.

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        11·
        16 days ago

        It’s really easy for one of the mods in this community to make the op fix the headline or remove the post. Did anyone report it?

      • 1984@lemmy.todayEnglish
        41·
        16 days ago

        Isnt it up to the readers of the article to notice and upvote things like this? Lemmy is just a link aggregator. Mods dont read every post. I bet almost everyone has a full time job or student life too.

        Report it and upvote the problem and it will be fixed by a mod eventually, and readers will be aware until that happens.

        • mechoman444@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          16 days ago

          One thing I love about eBay is that buyers can also be rated by sellers.

          That single handedly resolved many issues.

          I’m just saying… You’re right.

      • GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        15 days ago

        Some communities have bots that check post title and article title match, if not the post is auto-removed. Happened to me a while back when I simply tried to shorten a really long title.

        IMO this bot should be mandatory for all communities

    • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      16 days ago

      So they are using a form of harassment? Get them to look at the cost of sending someone vs just betraying one user. Of course the blowback as reddit shows it would betray your anonymity could be a pr disaster.

      If the article is correct then the whole demand is truly bizarre. There seems to be nothing in the reddit user’s postings to warrant this amount of concern. The fact that his comments are innocuous may be to set a precedent that any criticism, regardless of severity, can be prosecuted or at least intimidation.

    • GamingChairModel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      15 days ago

      No, it’s not volunteering, at least not anymore.

      Subpoena is legal Latin for “under penalty,” because noncompliance with a subpoena carries a penalty.

      Originally, it was an information request from the feds, and Reddit refused. Then they escalated to getting a grand jury subpoena (which means they got a bunch of normal citizens to agree that the information was relevant to a criminal investigation), so now noncompliance carries a penalty.

      Reddit notified the users, who hired their own lawyers, who are resisting the subpoena and will litigate it to where they need a judge to decide whether Reddit will have to turn the information over.

      That’s the process for these things, and we’re a couple steps in already.

  • einlander@lemmy.worldEnglish
    81·
    17 days ago

    Actual title:

    A Secret Grand Jury Is Seeking the Identity of a Reddit User Who Criticized ICE

    It’s completely unclear what illegal thing the user is supposed to have done, other than dislike ICE.

  • 13igTyme@piefed.socialEnglish
    474·
    17 days ago

    This is a reminder to everyone. If you or someone you know is still on Reddit. Use an extension to bulk deleted everything before deleting the account. You’re friends and family are not safe posting on reddit.

    • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
      651·
      17 days ago

      I am no fan of reddit but in this case Reddit appears to have championed this users anonymity going so far as to actively draw the ire of the administration.

      • Reddit refused to comply with the initial administrative subpoena
      • the Federal government came back with this grand jury subpoena and warned Reddit not to disclose the existence of the subpoena or they’d consider it interference in federal law enforcement
      • Reddit complied with this new legally binding subpoena, but did not comply with the demand to keep it a secret. In the contrary, they immediately alerted the user of the subpoena which allowed him time to immediately lawyer up.

      You’re not wrong that you’re not safe posting on Reddit, but if this case is any indication you’re not any less safe posting in Reddit than any other site, including Lemmy.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        132·
        17 days ago

        You’re not wrong that you’re not safe posting on Reddit, but if this case is any indication you’re not any less safe posting in Reddit than any other site, including Lemmy.

        You can choose the location (and thus legal jurisdiction) of your home instance, but yeah, in general, I think that people need to be aware that server operators on the Threadiverse are probably not going to fight legal battles on your behalf.

        We had someone ask about turning over IP addresses to law enforcement a while back on lemmy.today. The lemmy.today server admin gave what I’d call probably a pretty accurate answer.

        https://lemmy.today/post/7255213

        How will Lemmy Today handle IP subpoenas?

        Lemmy instances are run by volunteers who wants to see a social media network without big tech.

        I dont think you can trust any of those volunteers, including this one, to not comply with law enforcement. Thats not why we are running instances. Its about providing a platform without tracking, ads and algorithms for talking to other people and having a good time.

        Hope that makes sense.

        Use a VPN if you have a reason to. :)

        It linked to a similar question for lemmy.dbzer0.com:

        How will dbzer0 handle IP subpoenas?

        Don’t know man. I’m not making enough in donations to pay for the server costs, never mind hiring lawyers. I’ll deal with this when I have to 😅

        There are platforms more-aimed at providing harder pseudonymity. I’d put Hyphanet fairly high on the list of “a pain in the ass to track a poster down due to technical barriers” list (though that comes with very real performance and latency and suchlike costs).

        • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          16 days ago

          Only if that country doesn’t have info sharing treaties with the US. So much of Europe isn’t any safer than in the US.

      • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        17 days ago

        If you wait long enough they’ll unban your account. I lost my 10 year old account a few months before the API debacle over referencing piracy in /r/movies and then inadvertently commenting there on an alt account, and just discovered that it was completely restored a few months ago.

        • PattyMcB@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          17 days ago

          Good to know, since I was shadow-banned for “circumventing a ban” even though my account wasn’t banned to begin with. (No, I didn’t have any alt accounts)

    • PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      17 days ago

      Ya. I just got a 7 day ban for telling people to go and train with their guns at shooting ranges just to get used to using them before the civil war starts.

    • Samskara@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      16 days ago

      Bulk deletion of your posts might remove useful information from the internet.

      Well, maybe it’s now all saved to ChatGPT‘s faulty memory.

  • owenfromcanada@lemmy.caEnglish
    33·
    17 days ago

    The most absurd part of this is their inability to dox someone for a month. Give a handful of bored nerds any motivation and they’d have it figured out in a day or two.

  • BygoneNeutrino@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    16 days ago

    I find it reassuring that the government is at least acting like they can’t identify this user without Reddit’s consent. I wonder why this charade is necessary; are they trying to set a legal precedent?

    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.caEnglish
      15·
      16 days ago

      They want to prosecute peope in open court so using the NSA to id people would be inconvenient (but not impossible).

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        9·
        15 days ago

        Exactly, known as parallel construction, they find a plausible way to have found what they illegally know to use it publicly.

      • modus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        16 days ago

        They’ve probably already ID’d them. Now they just need Reddit to “volunteer” the info that DickSwanger420 is actually Marvin Peterson from Boise.

    • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      13·
      15 days ago

      They are doing a parallel construction so they can publicly make accusations. It’s not reassuring I assure you.

  • mrbeano@lemmy.zipEnglish
    26·
    17 days ago

    They’ve had difficulty convincing grand juries to indict in other sketchy cases. I have to wonder what super secret group of totally-not-ICE-officials this was approved by.

    • spongebue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      17 days ago

      Grand juries are usually formalities with a very low bar. There’s a phrase that you can indict a ham sandwich. Not getting a “true bill” is honestly an embarrassment that many prosecutors never see in their entire career.

      I could have seen this get blocked here, but there are still many steps ahead, each will get harder to move forward with.

      Fun fact: I just wrapped up a case as a juror (not a grand juror) this morning. We rendered a verdict of not guilty because there was plenty of reasonable doubt to be had.

  • Karmanopoly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    181·
    16 days ago

    I remember when reddit first got popular and the demise of Digg

    I feel like we’re watching the demise or reddit now

    The place is nothing but bots, they allow loser power tripping mods to ban you willy nilly with basically no appeal process. And now they’re gonna give you up to the govt

    I’m sure shareholders are super stoked right now

      • innermachine@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        16 days ago

        Yes it had been pretty shit since maybe 2016 or so honestly. You can go on any thread of an article on any subreddit and the top comments and top replies are like pre manufactured echo chamber propaganda for whoever is astroturfing or modding that community. Don’t get it messed up, Lemmy is guilty of echo chamber attitude as well but on Lemmy it’s at least a mass of people causing an echo chamber not one likely corporate interest pushing a talking point. Definatley feels more “natural” here I suppose. Or more human? Idk if I get rained on with downvotes here I’m pretty confident every individual one had a person behind it, vs u broke with the propaganda machine on reddit then you get downvoted into oblivion or censored/deleted. And if u get banned here it’s usually only one community that you likely don’t want to be in anyways, so benefits both the banned user and the community. I was glad the api debacle happened because it’s the only reason I learned about the fediverse!

        • CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          16 days ago

          The 2016 point is, on point. I remember the absolute flood of pro-Trump, incel, conservative content that felt completely inorganic and had very little representation prior popping up literally everywhere, everyday. It was like a firehose of far right fringe ideas was aimed at Reddit. Reddit 100% had problems prior but it was mostly focused on violence/sexual violence towards women and girls and wasn’t ever on the front page, other than maybe Jailbait. Even at the time people using Reddit were aware and talking about how unnatural it all seemed but now it’s too far gone and been normalized.

          I was a very early Reddit user, and a “power user” for over a decade who was permanently banned for “inciting violence” by saying I was surprised Kanye hadn’t murder/suicided Kim or Taylor yet as a joke. I think my far left progressive comments were more likely the reason.

          • GrindingGears@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            15 days ago

            It’s definitely gotten pretty weird. I’m on my last warning for inciting violence over saying I’m surprised no one has gotten killed yet, in a poorly designed traffic intersection that results in near-daily collisions near my house. Seriously. Someone reported it for inciting violence, the mods on the thread removed it and Reddit warned me and banned my account for a period. I’ve had a few other ones that were pretty random too.

    • Monte_Crisco@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      6·
      16 days ago

      I finally left just a couple weeks ago. Seeing and hearing about entire accounts being banned after simple peaceful criticism of political leaders showed me that they use poorly programmed algorithms to issue bans and also confirm them on appeals without any reasonable human elements. It also seemed like some accounts would get perma-banned by simply complaining about this process.

    • Samskara@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      42·
      16 days ago

      Mods on Lemmy are at least as ban happy than those on Reddit. Appeals? They don’t exist at all. At least you can easily make a new account on different instance on Lemmy. Reddit has strong enforcement of also banning all accounts they can link to yours with cookie and IP.

      Lemmy admins are likely to comply with local law enforcement as well, if they have to. So far it’s just untested because of irrelevance.

      • Rage4You@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        16 days ago

        Lemmy is self hosted and most people would for sure handover whatever they could if the feds just asked

  • sepi@piefed.socialEnglish
    121·
    16 days ago

    Why not worry about the pedo in the white house instead? Deport him and his entire family to the middle of the atlantic.