The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has requested personal information of online users who have been critical of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to theNew York Times.
TheTimesreported that names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize ICE have been requested as part of “hundreds of administrative subpoenas” issued by the federal agency in recent months, based on information provided by four government officials and tech employees. Reports have been corroborated by said companies to Military.com.
Some of the largest companies in the world that possess data for hundreds of millions of Americans have been contacted, including Google, Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), Reddit and Discord.
Military.comreached out for comment to all those companies, as well as DHS and the White House. The White House deferred remarks to DHS, which did not respond to an inquiry by press time.
Some Americans’ ire towards the federal agency and its immigration enforcement hashit a boiling pointin recent weeksfollowing the killingsof two Minneapolis, Minn., residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by ICE agents. Local and national protests have led to some government officials, like border czar Tom Homan,pledging the recall of some 700 agentsfrom the city to ease tensions and tactically shift.
President Donald Trump has said that perhaps agents should have a “softer touch” when it comes to immigration enforcement.
TheNew York Timesreported on Feb. 14 that Google, Meta and Reddit complied with some subpoena requests, in which said companies were asked “identifying details of accounts that do not have a real person’s name attached and that have criticized ICE or pointed to the locations of ICE agents.”
The publication reportedly saw two subpoenas that were sent to Meta over the past six months. While these tech companies do not have to provide information, theTimesreported that some of them notified people in the government’s interest and provided them 10-14 days to fight the subpoena in court.
When we receive a subpoena, our review process is designed to protect user privacy while meeting our legal obligations. We inform users when their accounts have been subpoenaed, unless under legal order not to or in an exceptional circumstance. We review every legal demand and push back against those that are overbroad. - A Google spokesperson to Military.com
Google’s U.S. presence is vast. Data as recent as January 2026 claims that Google holds roughly 83.4% to 88% of the search engine market share nationwide, equating to more than 16 billion daily searches.
Source: Drudge Report
