Twitter is suing the U.S. Government because an arm of the Department of Homeland Security wants to know who is behind an anti-Trump Twitter account.

They want to know user names, login information, phone numbers, mailing addresses and IP addresses behind the account behind the @ALT_uscis account. The account criticizes the administration's management of US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"Permitting CBP to pierce the pseudonym of the @ALT_uscis account would have a grave chilling effect on the speech of that account in particular and on the many other 'alternative agency' accounts that have been created to voice dissent to government policies," Twitter in its suit.

Twitter is arguing that the people behind such anti-Trump accounts could be facing retaliation, risk harassment, as well as their jobs. It is suspected that many of these accounts are run by government employees.

The social network accused the US government of violating the First Amendment in an attempt to silence political speech.

Roy Gutterman, a media law expert at Syracuse University, said: "America has a long history of protecting critics of government and Twitter is a modern form of expression and criticism," Gutterman said. "In this case, it's even more nefarious because the government is trying to find out who's saying bad things about it because that person or people could very well be working for the government."

The American Civil Liberties Union plans to join Twitter and said: "To unmask an anonymous speaker online, the government must have a strong justification," ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler said in a statement. "But in this case, the government has given no reason at all, leading to concerns that it is simply trying to stifle dissent."

Source: CNet