Shortly after the lawsuit was filed the American Civil Liberties Union said it would represent the individual behind the Twitter account, one of many government agency parody accounts that have become popular since Trump took office in January. The number of people following the account spiked with the news of the lawsuit and had surpassed 150,000 on Friday. Because U.S. Customs and Border Protection has withdrawn its summons for information about the account, "Twitter voluntary dismisses without prejudice all claims" against the government, Twitter's lawyers wrote in Friday's filing. Twitter has a history of defending its users privacy on the basis of protecting free speech. The anonymity that the First Amendment guarantees is often most essential when people criticize the government, and this free speech right is as important today as ever.”Email Matt at mdrange[at]forbes.com.

Source: Forbes April 07, 2017 18:30 UTC