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Twitter drops lawsuit against US government as order to unmask anti-Trump account withdrawn

Twitter had claimed the government was trying to curtail free speech  - REUTERS
Twitter had claimed the government was trying to curtail free speech - REUTERS

Twitter has dropped the lawsuit it filed against the US government the previous day, after an order forcing it to reveal the identity of an anonymous anti-Trump account was withdrawn. 

The @ALT_uscis account, which has over 120,000 followers, is dedicated to attacking Donald Trump's immigration policies, in particular plans for a border wall with Mexico.

It is one of a number of "alt" accounts for US government agencies that claim to be run by anonymous employees in the departments themselves, in this case United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Twitter on Thursday said the US government had ordered it to unmask the account in March under powers designed to tackle the import of counterfeit goods, demanding information such as the account's phone number and IP addresses. 

On Thursday, it said it was suing the Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection to block the order, saying it is an abuse of its powers and that forcing it to reveal who is behind @ALT-uscis would violate free speech.

However, on Friday a lawyer for Twitter, Mark Flanagan, wrote in court pages that the summons had been withdrawn and that the demand "no longer has any force or effect". 

No reason was given in the papers as to why the order was withdrawn. 

Donald Trump - Credit: AP
The account criticises Donald Trump's immigration policies Credit: AP

The complaint which Twitter had filed on Thursday in California said the Government departments were "unlawfully abusing a limited-purpose investigatory tool".  Twitter had said there was no evidence the account in question had committed any crimes, and had merely been critical of Mr Trump. 

"Defendants may not compel Twitter to disclose information regarding the real identities of these users without first demonstrating that some criminal or civil offence has been committed... defendants have not come close to making any of these showings," it said at the time.

Twitter was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been actively fighting Mr Trump's travel ban.

The alt Twitter accounts have sprung up since January, when the official account for the National Park Service was shut down after unfavourably comparing crowds at Mr Trump's inauguration against Barack Obama's.

They include alt accounts for the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Labor.

The @ALT_uscis account has posted almost 9,000 tweets since it was set up in January, mostly attacking the Trump administration, including claiming to set the record straight on the level of illegal immigration and the cost and effectiveness of Mr Trump's policies. Its followers include Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey.

Twitter, unlike Facebook, does not require its users to prove their real identity. Its free speech commitments and anonymous accounts have often been criticised for allowing trolls to thrive on the platform.

Mr Trump himself is an active Twitter user, although his campaign reportedly sparred with the social network over its refusal to create an anti-Hillary Clinton emoji.