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The U.S. government wants Google to unmask an anonymous Canadian critic of President Donald Trump, a move the American Civil Liberties Union says could have a chilling effect on free speech.
The Canadian citizen who posts anonymous online criticism of Trump has now launched a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, alleging the American government is wrongfully trying to compel Google to unmask him.
The lawsuit filed in California last month says the plaintiff identified as “John Doe” posts “extensively” about politics on social media, including strong opposition to Trump’s policies, although he hasn’t been to the United States in more than a decade.
It says the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Markwayne Mullin is trying to compel Google to disclose “vast swaths” of information about the plaintiff.
Michael Perloff, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union based in Washington, D.C., is representing the Canadian.
He said in an interview Wednesday that his client has posted critical comments, particularly about the conduct of the Department of Homeland Security which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Perloff said the government was seeking “a full panoply of what Google has about our client’s digital and physical life for no apparent reason apart from his criticisms of the Trump administration online.”
“We’re filing this lawsuit to protect our client’s ability to say what he wants to say without the United States government intruding upon his privacy and chilling his speech,” Perloff said.
The lawsuit alleges the department issued Google an administrative summons seeking records about his accounts including his name, where he lives, his browsing history and “extensive information about his physical movements.”
It says Google has not released the information yet, but the company has said it can’t “hold out forever.”
Perloff said it’s unclear exactly why the information on his client is being sought from Google, which hasn’t complied with the request.
“The imagination runs wild,” he said. “This administration certainly has not been restrained in its tactics to go after critics.”
He said there have been other reported cases of the U.S. government seeking information on critics of ICE from other tech and social media companies such as Reddit.
He said it’s already a “breach” of democratic norms to seek the information, and the consequences of its potential release go beyond one individual, whether they are in the United States or elsewhere.
“One of the functions that the United States government has often undertaken is trying to protect people in other countries from repressive regimes that have sought to harm them, attack their liberties and so on,” Perloff said.
“It’s appalling to me as an American citizen and as a lawyer to see us targeting or at least pursuing legal process against people abroad who are exercising the types of rights that we celebrate in the United States.:
The lawsuit alleges the summons was issued unlawfully under a code pertaining to import and export records, and the plaintiff alleges the release of the records would reveal his identity and information about his online activities.
He claims he posts online under a pseudonym to “protect himself and his family from harassment.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2026.
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