Facebook vs. US Government: Company Fights To Inform Users When They Are Under Investigation

Facebook is fighting an order from federal prosecutors that blocks the social networking company from informing its users about search warrants issued to collect account information, BuzzFeed reported.

According to public court filings, Facebook has taken issue with a number of search warrants it has received from the government to gain access to user accounts while barring Facebook from notifying those users of the request for their information—a tactic commonly referred to as a gag order.

Read: Government Surveillance: US Company Balked At NSA Data Demand

Facebook is challenging the order—with support from a number of civil liberties groups and tech companies—which pertains to three particular accounts that stem from mass arrests made in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

According to Facebook, the gag order placed on it violates the First Amendment, especially since the investigation is already public. The social network also argues that users should have the right to know about warrants so they may contest the corroborating claims.

According to a public notice about the case from Facebook, the warrants involved relate to an investigation into felony charges for the subjects of the warrants. The social network said “neither the government’s investigation nor its interest in Facebook user information was secret.”

Facebook unsuccessfully challenged the gag order in Superior court before taking it to the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C, where a panel of three judges will hear the case. No date has been set, but the court expects to take up the case in September.

Read: National Security Letters: Apple Reveals Declassified Government Gag Order

Microsoft, Google, Apple, Snap, Dropbox, Twitter and Yelp filed a brief siding with Facebook. They were joined by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen Litigation Group. A brief supporting Facebook was also filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, Center for Democracy and Technology and New America’s Open Technology Institute.

Facebook is far from the first company to push back against government gag orders—a tool which has commonly been used to access data from tech companies while limiting the company’s ability to communicate with users about investigations.

Earlier this year, Microsoft won the right to continue a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of its customers over ongoing gag orders that effectively prevented the company from informing a user of a government investigation.

Adobe also succeeded in a challenge over an indefinite gag order, which a federal judge determined was unnecessary and overreaching. Twitter likewise has been an outspoken opponent of the secret subpoenas. The social network won a suit over a government demand to reveal the identity of an anonymous user who had criticized the president.

Twitter also has been an outspoken opponent of the secret subpoenas, calling them an "Orwellian situation." The social network also won a suit over a government demand to reveal the identity of an anonymous user who had criticized the president.