Twitter is suing the US government over a demand to reveal the user behind an anti-Trump account

SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter said in a lawsuit on Thursday that it had received a demand from U.S. officials for records that could reveal the user behind a Twitter account opposed to President Donald Trump. Twitter is challenging the demand in court.

The lawsuit over the anonymous account, claimed to be run by federal immigration employees, was filed in federal court in San Francisco, where Twitter is based.

Following Trump's inauguration in January, anonymous Twitter feeds voicing concerns at more than a dozen U.S. government agencies appeared to challenge the president's views on climate change and other issues.

In the lawsuit, Twitter mentions that the Twitter account in question, @ALT_USCIS, has been known to "express public criticism of the Department and the current Administration," but that Twitter and its users are protected under the First Amendment.

The US government, Twitter says in the complaint, "may not compel Twitter to disclose information regarding the real identities of these users without first demonstrating that some criminal or civil offense has been committed, that unmasking the users' identity is the least restrictive means for investigating that offense, that the demand for this information is not motivated by a desire to suppress free speech, and that the interests of pursuing that investigation outweigh the important First Amendment rights of Twitter and its users."

Twitter declined to comment.

(Editing by Chris Reese)