Homeland Security has reportedly sent hundreds of subpoenas to declassify accounts against ICE

The Department of Homeland Security has been pressing tech companies to identify the owners of social media accounts that oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to The New York Times.

This is consistent with other recent reports, and Bloomberg points to five cases how Homeland Security tried to identify the owners of unknown Instagram accountsand the department to withdraw subpoenas after the owner has filed. And a Washington Post article explained how Homeland Security is using executive subpoenas – which do not require the approval of a judge – to go to America.

Now the NYT reports that the once-little-used practice has expanded dramatically in recent months, with the department sending hundreds of subpoenas to Google, Reddit, Discord, and Meta. The subpoenas purportedly targeted accounts that did not have a real name and would either incriminate ICE or reveal the location of ICE agents.

Google, Meta, and Reddit are said to follow suit in some cases. Based on previous comments, Google said it notifies users of subpoenas when it can, and that it backs off when subpoenas “proliferate”.