Reddit says it refused to hand over users’ personally identifiable information to U.S. prosecutors who sought data about people posting criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, resisting four ICE subpoenas it says targeted lawful speech. The company disclosed the pushback in its latest biannual transparency report, which covers legal demands received between January and June of this year, as reported by Zack Whittaker’s security newsletter ~this week in security~.
Four Grand Jury Subpoenas Over ICE-Related Posts
According to the disclosure, Reddit pushed back on four grand jury subpoenas “involving content related to ICE actions because the users appeared to be engaged in protected activity under the First Amendment,” a protection that shields people against government attempts to inhibit free speech and expression.
Reddit said that its resistance led prosecutors either to withdraw the demands altogether or to stop pursuing disclosure. The Intercept first reported on one of those subpoenas in April, according to the newsletter.
The six-month window covered by the report overlapped with widespread protests against ICE across the United States, which followed the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
How ICE Subpoenas Differ From Warrants
The distinction between the legal instruments involved matters. Search warrants and court orders are backed by a judge. Subpoenas, by contrast, are issued by government agencies to request information from companies while dangling the future threat of going to court to formally compel disclosure.
Grand jury subpoenas of the kind served on Reddit are generally issued by government prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office rather than by the judiciary. Whittaker argues in the newsletter that if prosecutors already had enough evidence, they would arguably have sought a court-issued order to begin with.
That gap is the reason ICE subpoenas and similar administrative demands can be contested by the recipient company without a court fight, and why Reddit’s refusal carried weight: the demands were dropped rather than escalated.
More Than 185,000 Warrantless Demands Since January 2025
The newsletter places Reddit’s disclosure alongside earlier reporting on how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has used its subpoena powers to demand information from technology companies — including Discord, Google and Meta — about users who have been publicly critical of the Trump administration and its activities. In some of those cases, according to that reporting, the companies complied and turned over the personal information of critics even when there was no judicially compelled reason to do so.
Since Trump took office in January 2025, Homeland Security has issued more than 185,000 subpoenas with no judicial oversight. Wired identified that figure in a court filing and reported that warrantless demands for information have rocketed during Trump’s second term.
Why the Transparency Report Is the Only Record
Reddit operates one of the longest-running biannual transparency reports in the industry. Each edition details, for a six-month window, how often the government demands Reddit users’ data and when the company says no.
Whittaker writes that the disclosure “is a win for transparency and free speech, and it matters that Reddit disclosed its pushback on its own accord,” adding that it shows companies do not have to comply with a demand simply because a government agency issued it. He argues that publishing transparency reports is all the more important “at a time when the U.S. government is increasingly acting outside of the law.”
Without those reports, there is no public record at all. As the newsletter puts it, without knowing how many demands companies receive, there is no way to know how often — if at all — they push back.
Newer Tech Companies Skipping the Practice
Most of the large technology companies maintain their own transparency reports online. Newer tech companies, aside from a few outliers, have largely eschewed the practice, according to the newsletter.
Whittaker singles out Oura, the wearable fitness tracker used by millions of people around the world. As one of the largest health wearable companies in the industry, Oura collects extensive personal and sensitive data about its users’ activity and location, and the company stores that data in a way that allows employees to access it. That storage arrangement, the newsletter notes, also means governments can compel Oura to turn over the data.
“For its size and market power, Oura has no excuse for not disclosing how often it gets a knock at the door from law enforcement or government agencies,” Whittaker writes.
A Rare Public Refusal From a Major Platform
Reddit’s account of the four grand jury subpoenas is notable because the company volunteered it rather than responding to outside reporting, and because the outcome — demands withdrawn or abandoned — ran in the opposite direction from the compliance described in earlier reporting about other platforms.
The disclosure lands during a period of heavy scrutiny of the company on other fronts, including the recent test of search ads amid slipping traffic and the market reaction when Reddit’s stock sank 17% as daily active user growth stalled.
The next edition of Reddit’s transparency report will cover the second half of 2026.
