The US-based Dream Host has turned down a government request to hand over data to millions of activists who staged protests against President Donald Trump on his inauguration in January.
The US Department of Justice has requested access to protocol addresses for all 1.3 million visitors to the disruptj20.org website that helped organize protests against Trump.
DreamHost currently refuses to meet this request and is due to appear before the court later this month.
The US Justice Department has so far not responded to BBC requests to comment on the reports.
The reasons for the Ministry of Justice's request for Internet Protocol addresses were not known to visitors.
"The site was used to prepare, plan, propagate and organize violent riots in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2017," the ministry said in its suit to the District Court of Columbia, requesting Dreamhost to hand over the data.
The ministry pointed out that a "specific client" of the company was "the subject of the lawsuit" but did not explain why it needed too much information regarding other visitors.
"Digital Trap"
In a blog comment on these issues, DreamHost said it, like many other ISPs, regularly receives requests from law enforcement agents about agents who may be at the center of criminal investigations.
But she added that she rejected the request in particular "because it is not entirely targeted."
In addition to the titles of the protocol, DreamHost said the Ministry of Justice had requested contact details, e-mail contents and images of "thousands of visitors" to the site.
"There is no clear explanation for a search and search order in this depth, except for the publication of a digital trap (the launch of a crackdown) on a wider scale," said the online front organization, which defends civil rights and assists DreamHost in its judicial struggle. Scope as possible. "
The court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the case on August 18.
Source:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/14/feds_demand_data_on_every_visitor_to_antitrump_website/
https://phys.org/news/2017-08-web-firm-protester-fresh-clash.html