From The Hill:
The Department of Justice has requested information on visitors to a website used to organize protests against President Trump, the Los Angeles-based Dreamhost said in a blog post published on Monday.
The web hosting company, DreamHost, blogged that the DOJ wants information about the website disruptj20.org, including its owners and all visitors. That information would include the identities of visitors and what content they viewed. The company is pushing back, and the department wants an order compelling DreamHost to comply.
This is from the company’s blog post:
The request from the DOJ demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 million visitor IP addresses — in addition to contact information, email content, and photos of thousands of people — in an effort to determine who simply visited the website. …...
That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind.
You betcha it does. The rights to free speech and free assembly come to mind. Here’s what the warrant said about using the information, again according to The Hill:
The warrant, dated July 12, says that authorities will seize any information constituting violations of D.C. code governing riots that involve individuals connected to the protests on Inauguration Day. More than 200 people were indicted on felony rioting charges in connection with the protests in Washington on Jan. 20.
To what end? Do they want to show premeditation, and that people crossed state lines to do it? Seems like they could seek just the information on people indicted and not every visitor to the site. But if they wanted to create a list of so-called “agitators” and “dissenters” — more people for Trump to call “enemies of the state” — well, this would fit the bill.
This paranoia thing is new to me. I’m not a fan.