In a shocking display of government power, the FBI has issued a subpoena to a web server in Philadelphia. According to CBS the US Attorney's subpoena demands the production of
"all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008...to "include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information," including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers' Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.
Making this investigation more mysterious is that Indymedia.us is an aggregation site, meaning articles that appear on it were published somewhere else first, and there's no hint about what sparked the criminal probe.
This is not, however, the first time that the Feds have focused on Indymedia -- a Web site whose authors sometimes blur the line between journalism, advocacy, and on-the-streets activism. In 2004, the Justice Department sent a grand jury subpoena asking for information about who posted lists of Republican delegates while urging they be given an unwelcome reception at the party's convention in New York City that year.
"Our fear is that this kind of bogus gag order is much more common than one would hope, considering they're legally baseless," [Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation] says. "We're telling this story in hopes that more providers will press back and go public when the government demands their silence."
Keep an eye out folks for the increased efforts to silence the new media. As Bill Withers might have said "Ain't no sunshine when we're gone. Only darkness everyday."
Comments