DreamHost Vs. POTUS: Judge Conceals Visitors To Anti-Trump Website

A United States Superior Court has moved to conceal the identities of users who visited a website used to organize protests against President Donald Trump despite a request from the federal government to disclose them.

The order from the District of Columbia court’s Chief Judge Robert Morin will still require DreamHost, a website hosting company, to turn over information from the website including files, messages and other information from DistruptJ20.org.

According to the order, the government "does not have the right to rummage through the information contained on DreamHost's website and discover the identity of, or access communications by, individuals not participating in alleged criminal activity."

Identities of individuals who visited the site, which was a rallying point for a number or protests that took place during the inauguration of President Trump, are not guaranteed to remain anonymous. The data provided to federal prosecutors will initially be anonymized and the government will be able to request the identities of those who they believe may have been involved in criminal activity.

In order for DreamHost to unmask a user for the government, the Justice Department will have to demonstrate to the court that the activity of a user on DisruptJ20.org is directly related to the ongoing investigation into alleged rioting and other criminal actions that took place on Inauguration Day.

The Justice Department has so far charged more than 200 people with felony rioting for actions on the day of President Trump’s inauguration. The three people who reportedly run the DisruptJ20 website have not been charged in any of the criminal cases.

“We’re happy to see significant changes that will protect the constitutional rights of innocent internet users,” DreamHost's General Counsel Christopher Ghazarian told International Business Times, noting that under this order, the company will be able to redact all identifying information and protect the identities of users who interacted with disruptj20.org.

Ghazarian said the company “applaud[s]” Judge Morin’s decision and said there are “quite a few modifications” made by the ruling that reduces the government’s ability to review unrelated data. “This is another huge win not just for DreamHost, but for internet users around the world,” he said.

DreamHost, which hosts DisruptJ20.org, originally received a search warrant on July 12 requiring the company to disclose a significant amount of information that would be stored on the company’s servers. The warrant included a request for all files associated with the site, email accounts, the contents of those accounts associated with the site and contact and billing information of the person who registered the site.

The warrant also demanded DreamHost disclose any information it had about people who simply visited the website. The Justice Department asked for the IP addresses of visitors, which would generally provide information about a visitor’s location and other potentially identifiable information, as well as contact information of people who used the site.