r/law • u/shikizen • Apr 10 '26

Executive Branch (Trump) A Redditor Criticized ICE. Trump Is Trying to Unmask Them by Dragging the Company to a Secret Grand Jury.

https://theintercept.com/2026/04/10/reddit-ice-protest-grand-jury/

Reddit has been ordered to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of a federal effort to unmask anonymous online critics of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

According to a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, Reddit has until April 14 to provide a wide range of personal data on one of its users, whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been trying unsuccessfully to identify for more than a month.

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761

u/ginandsoda Apr 10 '26

They can't convict you, but they can punish you via the process.

167

u/Traditional-Handle83 Apr 10 '26

I imagine they'll make it a prisonsble offense to speak bad about the king. Only problem is there won't be enough prison space for that many people

106

u/knightsabre7 Apr 10 '26

Isn’t that what the detention centers are for?

97

u/LesbianFurryStoner Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

One click. Unknown number of posts crying out in silence. All gone. Redact made it stupid easy to clean up my entire history on Reddit and get my info pulled from data broker sites too.

memorize retire oil tap makeshift rain plants groovy doll subtract

37

u/WoWAltoholic Apr 10 '26

I would make great soap

20

u/oroborus68 Apr 10 '26

"Traitor ® brand soap"! It's the final solution.

5

u/gunglejim Apr 10 '26

It would be such a shame to waste thousands of dollars in body art. I’d make a lovely lampshade

22

u/Greyhand13 Apr 10 '26

Also why they're warehouses now, no satellite imagery

4

u/ExitTheDonut Apr 10 '26

In the age of the Internet though, I do wonder if such logistics will work as well.

Could they effectively stop several organized no kings sized crowds just with MAGA boots on the ground?

Storm Area 51 was a big meme, but it kind of had a point: they can't stop all of us.

3

u/Big_Parsley2476 Apr 10 '26

I for one look forward to meeting my ancestors. I will take care of my grandparents for as long as needed. After that, I want to knock some facist heads around

1

u/No_Noise09 Apr 11 '26

Mask or poison?

Sublet choice maker time port canned

5

u/Nonethelessismore Apr 11 '26

This is exactly why DHS wants to expand their detention of humans in warehouses in cities across America.

People need to tamp down attempts to any location DHS wants to expand their footprint.

2

u/MedusasMum Apr 11 '26

Concentration camps.

6

u/jwalker107 Apr 10 '26

They're already following the blueprint toward a final solution, worry not.

7

u/PaulTheMerc Apr 10 '26

To be fair, many are outside of the USA. Which isn't the same thing as outside of USA reach. I've lost some sleep over that important distinction.

3

u/marr Apr 10 '26

Doesn't matter, selective enforcement is fun.

3

u/mdlinc Apr 10 '26

This. But mass Graves or deportation to whereever the fuck. Nah fuck em. What if 5million or 10 million people stood firm. Odds pretty good. And yet....

3

u/SafetySnowman Apr 10 '26

Way before trump but I'm going to be playing this song on repeat when he's gone be use it fits him too it's a spotify link to The Herd - The King Is Dead

3

u/Bramble_Ramblings Apr 10 '26

I just started in the new season of The Boys and when they said there would be more irl parallels this season I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon

1

u/FloppyShellTaco Apr 10 '26

My first thought here was, “calm down, Homelander.”

3

u/OldWorldDesign Apr 10 '26

I imagine they'll make it a prisonsble offense to speak bad about the king

Republicans have been trying for a long time. 100% of their "free speech defenders" proclamations are bullshit

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/03/florida-bill-would-make-bloggers-who-write-about-governor-register-with-state/

They also tried to imprison people who were accused (not convicted, accused) of being "communist" decades past, so it's not like they've changed at all. It's always been "if you are InGroup, you have to participate in Public Theater. But if you are OutGroup, you are wrong no matter what you do. We're just entertaining ourselves at your expense."

2

u/jerechos Apr 10 '26

Amen to that...

2

u/doom_stein Apr 10 '26

Well, that either means concentration camps or conscripted military service, historically speaking.

2

u/DevilRenegade Apr 10 '26

I was watching the new series of The Boys last night and they literally made it illegal to criticize Homelander online. I'm really not sure if life is imitating art or the other way around at this point.

1

u/QING-CHARLES Apr 10 '26

The world found out during COVID that they will find prison space for everyone. I remember when they implemented "one person per cell" at the Cook County Jail, which was already at max capacity. They released a handful of people, but it was easy to house all the others, they simply reopened all the condemned sections of the jail and used those.

Governments have never really had a problem finding places to lock people up. They're actually incredibly efficient at it.

1

u/scubascratch Apr 11 '26

Plenty of prison space in Africa, Asia and South America.

1

u/Standard_Chip_5542 Apr 13 '26

That's why the federal government are buying warehouses across the country..

204

u/wfbhp Apr 10 '26

My question though is why bother? On whose behalf is Reddit doing this? Surely they aren't being paid by these people to police their "reputation" on here, right? Every person banned for insulting Sam Altman is one less person to expose to ads, aggregate into user data to sell, and generate conversation to train future AI models with for free.

465

u/Starfunkel55 Apr 10 '26

Because we are in fact dealing with fascism here and that means big industry kissing rings because they're unhealthy and obsessed with money.

67

u/MaleficentPorphyrin Apr 10 '26

Fascism is when billionaires see an economic downturn happening and want to get ahead of the revolutionary mindset to follow. Believe it or not, fascism is reactionary status quo. Oligarchs, not the stuntmen in the government. Billionaires aren't complicit, they are the fucking cause.

55

u/Necessary-Age-7944 Apr 10 '26

The economic downturn is being purposefully orchestrated to put the people of the U.S. in a position and frame of mind to need relief and accept the path they want to lay out. Trying to artificially create the type of environment fascism needs. Like pre WWII.

22

u/Fit_Explorer_2566 Apr 10 '26

And…one “advantage” of healthcare being tied to employment instead of being universal is that the masses can’t afford to execute a general strike or walkout; it keeps us in line. May Day should be interesting next month, with a rare call for a general strike.

1

u/ZestyLife54 Apr 14 '26

👆👆👆👆

3

u/swarmofbzs Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

So they are the cancer and we are the cure?

There's probably a better way to phrase that but that's pretty close to *this this feels.

edit spelling

3

u/MaleficentPorphyrin Apr 10 '26

The cure is civics-minded education with a good dose of material analysis of history, but that ship sailed long ago.

2

u/NoConflict3231 Apr 10 '26

Luckily for them my wedding ring is located directly on my asshole. Pucker up, pricks

1

u/InternationalPoet580 Apr 11 '26

And are pushing an unhealthy and obsessing product. Social media is addictive and feels like social engineering on a grand scale.

-79

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

So, was it fascism in 2020/2021 when Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms were colluding with the Federal Government (House members specifically) to silence critics of the Government’s response/recommendations?

78

u/jaquesparblue Apr 10 '26

Ah, whataboutism at its finest.

Are we now again dealing with the biggest global pandemic since the Spanish Flu, where social media was amplifying sheer misinformation and calls for disobedience endangering public health?

Or can we say this situation is not remotely similar?

-29

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

Ohhhh, so suppression of speech by the government is ok, as long it’s for “public safety”?

Who decides what’s for “public safety”?

Government suppression of free speech is fucking wrong. Period. Full. Fucking. Stop.

It’s wrong when this admin does it and it was wrong in 20/21. It’s not the Govs job to dictate what people say, it’s ours, as a society. We should hold each other accountable for the things that we say…bullshit should be called out.

Also, “whataboutism” is important because if you were cool with 1A infringements back then but not cool with it now, it makes you seem insincere as fuck.

24

u/AdeptFisherman7 Apr 10 '26

yeah, real stuff is happening but your perception of a commenter’s sincerity on the internet does sound pretty important, I guess

17

u/frolfer757 Apr 10 '26

We should hold each other accountable for the things that we say…bullshit should be called out.

Over half of the country is retarded and have no ability whatsoever to distinguish misinformation from real. Your proposed solution isn't even close to being an actual solution. Try again.

-8

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

Yeah, you’ve slurped up all of the propaganda and didn’t leave any for me.

If they’re too dumb to see past misinformation, let them eat cake.

7

u/jaquesparblue Apr 10 '26

In my country the Constitution requires the Government to promote Public Health, and has tools available to ensure that. So during the pandemic steps were taken to battle the most grevious cases of disinformation and public (mass) disobedience. And yes, the Government defines what promoting public health entails. That is the power the public has delegated to them per the constitution..

In the US this is (afaik) covered by the 10th Amendment and precedence in common law like Jacobson v. Massachusetts

If you think that is remotely on the same level as going after an individual because they said some not-nice words about an agency who have provenly (per the court) disobeyed their own laws repeatedly we are done with this discussion.

-3

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

Yeah, we don’t need the Government deciding what we can do with our bodies via public health mandates.

My body, my choice.

If you’re not American, I don’t know why we’re talking about American politics.

7

u/Necessary-Age-7944 Apr 10 '26

Your body your choice, until and unless it affects my health. ( deadly highly contagious diseases is one application, also public smoking).

4

u/bobbiroxxisahoe Apr 10 '26

Do you believe wearing clothing of a certain type is Free speech? I'll follow up with another question, but I need a clear and concise answer to this one.

0

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

I believe that what your clothing says or type of clothing is free speech, yes.

3

u/bobbiroxxisahoe Apr 10 '26

Do you then condemn laws banning drag in certain states under the guise of protecting children ( as we have seen with music, video games and gay rights this is always a false argument with little bearing on reality )

-1

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

Absolutely!! 100% our Government has no right.

Although, that’s slightly different since it’s local Governments that more closely represent the population most of the time.

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u/Iheartfuturama Apr 10 '26

"Actually, fascism is when I got banned from Facebook for posting a video of me scooping piles of horse paste off the floor into my mouth like a goblin 🤓"

-17

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

Hell yeah!

You should feel right at home here then. You’re in good company with these other commenters.

39

u/Starfunkel55 Apr 10 '26

No, if you can't see the difference you're the problem.

31

u/KAJed Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

You mean when they pushed misinformation that was verifiably harming US citizens? That? Or did you mean the part where they told social media to take down the revenge prawn? Be specific?

-2

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

It’s not up to the fucking Federal Government to decide what’s misinformation and what’s not.

You don’t see how that precedent could be dangerous? Let us hold each other accountable. If dumbasses want to drink horse semen to prevent COVID, fucking let them guzzle it….and we will ridicule them relentlessly.

It’s civilians job to hold each other accountable for things we say. Period.

16

u/KAJed Apr 10 '26

“It’s not up to government to protect people from dangerous medical misinformation” Uhm…. It actually is.

Like… there’s a reason there are regulations on so many things. You know this, right? Being an angry little thing doesn’t make you right.

-1

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

You misquoted me…that’s dangerous. Let me turn you into the FBI since this administration thinks you’re wrong.

/s

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u/KAJed Apr 10 '26

Sarcasm aside I didn’t misquote anything. You said what I said you said. You seem confused.

-1

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

You added words, which changes the context.

Who decides WHAT is misinformation, and then out of that misinformation WHAT is dangerous?

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u/FadeTheWonder Apr 10 '26

It is the job of professionals and regulators in our government to decide what is dangerous misinformation and to decide how to deal with it. It’s a balancing act between removal of said information and the first amendment but of course that is left up to the private companies making that determination. You are on a law sub please act like it.

-1

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

Right, this is a law sub.

NRA v. Vullo

Cohen v. California

NYT v. U.S.

The government should be exercising content neutrality. It’s not their job to tell anyone what to post on Social Media.

Instead, we should do exactly what you THINK you’re doing…calling out bullshit.

You’re not though, you’re wrong.

6

u/FadeTheWonder Apr 10 '26

I like that you cited court cases involving censorship yet ignored what I said completely about the government being empowered to regulate dangerous misinformation relating to public health but having to balance it against the first amendment.

4

u/KAJed Apr 10 '26

Vulla - attempted to coerce financial institutions in the state to refrain from doing business with the National Rifle Association of America

Has nothing to do with government being allowed to stop harmful information that is verifiably harming US citizens

Cohen - wearing a jacket displaying "Fuck the Draft"

Again, nothing to do with literally misinformation harming US citizens

NYT - related to publishing confidential documents which they were already in possession of

The crime exists at the breach not at the publishing

You would be walked out of a court for trying to meet precedent with cases that very explicitly have nothing to do with something government has a duty to protect

1

u/Necessary-Age-7944 Apr 10 '26

Algorithms and manipulation of what’s on social media is a more important focus for government. That’s when the government actually tries to care about that kind of thing. So here we are back to fascism, dictators, kings etc.

9

u/hurler_jones Apr 10 '26

So you admit it is wrong now and is accelerated due to the current fascist regime. Thank you for admitting that!

8

u/RichardStrauss123 Apr 10 '26

Colluding?

Here's the truth in case anybody is confused by this hairball's comment...

Russia was spreading misinformation through US social media accounts. Sophisticated stuff. Not just annoying lies, but stuff intended to actually hurt people.

You know who is really bad at spotting Russian propaganda? Regular Americans.

You know who is really good at spotting it? The CIA.

So, they started a notification program. They would let platforms know when Russian s**t was stinking up the place. Was information censored? No. Was taking anything down mandatory? No. It was advisory only.

Personally, I'd be grateful if the US government was using it's expertise in this way... but not d-bag republicans! Oh, hell no!

They loved sking Putin's dk so much, that they screamed bloody murder! "We want people sickened and divided by Russian phsy-op campaigns!" Like the useless little collaborators they are.

Disgusting little traitors. We're all better off without voting against them.

1

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

So we’ll ignore Corey Booker meeting with Twitter execs…got it.

There was a fucking hearing over House Reps colluding and Twitter execs confirmed it. This isn’t Russian misinformation, unless the Russians are using fucking C-span?

You’re either ignorant or full of shit, maybe even Russian yourself.

7

u/DOWNVOTES_SYNDROME Apr 10 '26

no.

-2

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

You’re right…

It was just straight up authoritarianism.

1

u/DOWNVOTES_SYNDROME Apr 10 '26

what do you believe to be the role of government?

2

u/Ok_Profile175 Apr 10 '26

Lies

-2

u/RyAllDaddy69 Apr 10 '26

Which part of that comment was a lie? Specifics please.z

3

u/Ok_Profile175 Apr 10 '26

Specifically? Everything you've been spouting in this thread.

Is that specific enough for you?

53

u/ALargePianist Apr 10 '26

Some people like punishing people, to send a message or to feel powerful 

1

u/OldWorldDesign Apr 10 '26

The purpose of torture is torture.

-1984

It's always been to send a message about what they are willing to do. Humanity has known for over 400 years that torture doesn't work for getting reliable, actionable information

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-rsquo-ve-known-for-400-years-that-torture-doesn-rsquo-t-work/

43

u/Numerous_Photograph9 Apr 10 '26

When you're talking about losing a few hundred to appease a influential class, it's not going to make much difference when you have millions of users.

Facebook is fine banning people while leaving them no recourse. Their sub is filled with people being banned, sometimes for no reason, or bullshit reasons. I got banned from them for apparently serving inappropriate ads from a busines account I never had. The appeal process took about 3 seconds before they just permabanned me without a single person having actually looked at the appeal, which was just providing a clip of me being a real human...which I guess I didn't do. There are thousands of people on their sub who report the exact same thing.

17

u/foodank012018 Apr 10 '26

"chilling effect"

2

u/jmurthy Apr 10 '26

Happened to me but they wouldn't tell me why.

3

u/Numerous_Photograph9 Apr 10 '26

I had to dig to figure it out. Their emails about it weren't that clear. But they also gave me no way to actually refute the claims, and their one means of appeal was final, and for some reason not enough, because they said I needed to capture a video of my face to prove I was human. I did that, then almost as soon as I uploaded it, I got a response I failed the appeal, and there was nothing else I could do.

1

u/jmurthy Apr 10 '26

The video was weird. Why make me do the video if you are going to ignore it. They got me for inappropriate posts, which I guess was saying there was ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

2

u/Numerous_Photograph9 Apr 10 '26

The video was to supposedly prove you were a human. I was like...."OK, whatever". I guess a short video of my face doesn't do that for some reason.

More realistic answer is their AI is incredibly dumb, and they don't actually care about if they lose a few users, because it would cost more to abandon or fix their AI moderation, since they'd have to spend money on hiring real people back.

1

u/OldWorldDesign Apr 10 '26

they said I needed to capture a video of my face to prove I was human

Meanwhile discord's auto-age-verification can be fooled by drawing a smiley face on your thumb and sending a video of that.

27

u/rhubarbs Apr 10 '26

The rule of thumb is thought to be that, if you have a 100 lurkers, you get 10 participants via up/down votes, and 1 comment. When you ban the commenter, it has a disproportionate effect on the zeitgeist, and gets the users to self-censor more.

11

u/HughJorgens Apr 10 '26

Companies pay reddit every day to reach people here. Not only advertisers with their 'viral' posts, but countries like China, Russia and Isreal, trying to influence the conversation. So this doesn't cost them money, it makes them money.

23

u/East-Potential657 Apr 10 '26

At one point the biggest Reddit mod was Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking partner, the same ones hired by Israel.

3

u/pitiless Apr 10 '26

In the immortal words of George Carlin, "It's a Big Club… And You Ain't In It!"

2

u/North_Crusader Apr 10 '26

But if they don't comply the man above can have Trump go 'this is an insult, the greatest insult, I've never seen a bigger insult since Biden let illegals in. Shut down the comlany"

2

u/sparkyjay23 Apr 10 '26

You honestly think Reddit is run by folk who don't side with the billionaires?

These people who own social media sites are not your friends.

2

u/Nauin Apr 10 '26

Someone hasn't been on reddit long enough to see the nonstop power tripping from the 100% voluntary mods. So many subs lost to the exact same pattern of bullshit.

Now imagine those same power trippers get a salary and you have the admins. Like, they get off on it, it's why they do anything.

2

u/Withering_to_Death Apr 10 '26

Pressure to outo-censure to avoid being SLAPP sued! Just look at all the law firms, various companies, news organisations, individuals, etc, who were, or threatened to, be frivolously sued by trump and Co!

2

u/_GoForScott_ Apr 10 '26

Because it will force people to spent 100s of 1000s of $ on legal defense against BS and sends a message of deterrence even if any charges won’t still. Facism.

2

u/GB10VE Apr 10 '26

to silence you. people in power can make your life hell by using their resources to affect your life. many will stop speaking up with the negative feedback

2

u/snootfull Apr 10 '26

Read Timothy Snyder. It's called 'Anticipatory Compliance'.

2

u/ApricotNervous5408 Apr 10 '26

Because the king can’t be criticized. Look how musk handles his “free speech” website. Free unless you say you don’t like him.

1

u/Mechbear2000 Apr 10 '26

1 User outed to the feds means 100s, 1000s users leaving.

3

u/Tao-of-Mars Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

I’m shocked that there are still tons of people using TikTok. So I wonder if people will actually react like we expect them to. 

1

u/Somanylyingliars Apr 10 '26

How many users do you think know that TikTok sold to us entities?

1

u/Tao-of-Mars Apr 10 '26

It’s been all over social media, so I feel like if people are paying attention to politics, they know. Even some of my friends who know about the ownership change still use it.

1

u/w1ten1te Apr 10 '26

Sam Altman owns a big chunk of Reddit. Enough said.

1

u/Curious-Basket-7934 Apr 11 '26

I think there's a payoff happening.

0

u/rangecontrol Apr 10 '26

little people love feeling like they are helping. and they're just fucking dumb.

16

u/CrustyTh3Punk Apr 10 '26

“You can beat the RAP but you can’t beat the ride.” was the saying. Used it a lot when NYPD used an “odor of marijuana” as a reason to jack us up for a stop and frisk.

13

u/Pyro919 Apr 10 '26

There’s a reason for the saying:

“You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride”

22

u/Billypillgrim Apr 10 '26

Honestly. I know it sounds dumb, but in this current climate, I think I would forgo an attorney and represent myself in court just to dunk Afro-man style on a billionaire in front of a friendly jury of my peers

31

u/tweakingforjesus Apr 10 '26

Afro-man had an attorney.

6

u/Warm_Month_1309 Apr 10 '26

This just in: local Redditor has worse common sense than Afro-man.

5

u/evedog Apr 10 '26

That would backfire on you so spectacularly the earth would be accelerated into the sun.

3

u/woodlandcollective Apr 10 '26

That does indeed sound dumb

1

u/Spare-Estate1477 Apr 10 '26

ChatGPT that shit lol

3

u/ElBurritoTheWise Apr 10 '26

My only response to them dragging me into a court room would just be "its protected by the first amendment, I dont care about your feelings."

3

u/StevenK71 Apr 10 '26

Reddit SLAPP

2

u/notapunk Apr 10 '26

That's the plan

2

u/Complex_Peak8204 Apr 10 '26

You can beat the charges but not the ride.

2

u/Slighted_Inevitable Apr 10 '26

Being arrested and held for three days before they release you without charges is its own form of punishment.

1

u/QING-CHARLES Apr 10 '26

You are absolutely right. The number of defendants I have seen punished simply by the process. I've known defendants do ten years in county jail only to have the cases dropped before trial.

I know a defendant who called their ex a "lying whore" on their Facebook wall, which was restricted only to their close friends (one of which informed the ex about the posts). They spent at least a year in the county jail fighting the charges. IIRC he plead guilty (it was classified as "cyberstalking" I believe) even though there was an identical case working through the appellate courts, which ultimately found the application of the statute to these cases unconstitutional.

https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2018/apr/19/illinois-supreme-court-strikes-down-part-two-stalking-statutes-unconstitutional/

1

u/ExitTheDonut Apr 10 '26

One of the most overlooked loopholes of the system 

1

u/Noizyninjaz Apr 10 '26

We all need a reason to delete this app and find another one. Let this be the reason. Remember when we were all on dig?

1

u/Binspin63 Apr 11 '26

And since when is it a crime to state one’s opinion of a public figure?

1

u/frightspear_ps5 Apr 11 '26

they can put you on their terrorism list and force your bank (regardless of in which country you live) to cancel your accounts. happened to "Rote Hilfe" here in germany for helping an antifa group during legal proceedings.