Facebook fights gag barring it from telling users about US government requests for their private data

Non-disclosure orders bar the company from notifying the account holders about the search warrants

Facebook has picked up support from a number of companies and organisations (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

Facebook is challenging a court order preventing it from telling users about secret US government requests for their private account information, according to court documents.

The company says the order threatens freedom of speech.

The search warrants were accompanied by a non-disclosure order prohibiting Facebook from informing the users about the requests before it actually complied with them.

The social network, which received search warrants for three accounts over a period of three months, wants to notify the users and give them the chance to object to the warrants, reports Reuters.

Little is currently known about the nature of the government’s investigations, but a filing suggests it could relate to arrests made in Washington, DC, during protests on the day of President Trump’s inauguration, according to BuzzFeed News.

Facebook is challenging the order because it believes “there are important First Amendment concerns” with the case, and says the requests were made in connection with events that were “generally known to the public”.

“The Warrants seek all contents of communications, identifying information, and other records related to three Facebook accounts for a specified three-month period of time,” reads a document from Facebook.

“In light of the Warrants’ potential impact on the First Amendment rights of its users, Facebook moved to vacate the NDO on the grounds that it did not withstand strict scrutiny under the First Amendment.

“Because Facebook believed that neither the government’s investigation nor its interest in Facebook user information was secret, Facebook moved to vacate the NDO so that it could provide its users with notice of the Warrants and an opportunity to object to them before Facebook produced responsive records to the government.”

Facebook has picked up support from a number of companies and organisations, including Apple, Microsoft and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The case will be heard by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in September.