Dreamhost, a company based out of Los Angeles, has obviously been operating with the Department of Justice but has opposed the government’s request as moving “too far beneath the Constitution.” If the web hosting company complied fully with the DoJ’s appeal, it would amount to handing over 1.3 million users IP addresses, as well as “names, addresses, telephone numbers and other information, e-mail addresses, company data, the length of service including start date, means and reference of payment for services including any credit cards or bank account number, and information about any domain name registration.”
The DoJ’s warrant claimed that this information is important because “officials will seize any information law violations of D.C. code directing riots that involve people connected to the protests on Inauguration Day.”
In a blog post written today, Dreamhost announced a grave warning:
“That data could be used to recognize any individuals who utilized this site to practice and express political speech guarded under the Constitution’s First Amendment. That should be sufficient to set warning bells off in anyone’s brain.”
Chris Ghazarian, the company’s general adviser, also weighed in on the request:
“In essence, the Search Warrant not only tries to identify the political dissenters of the current administration but tries to identify and explain what content each of these protesters viewed on the website.”
The fact that a supposed “populist” President has started a campaign that so blatantly uses aim at political protesters is illegal.
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