Twitter Sues Trump, Cofounder Sells Chunk of Shares

April 7, 2017

Twitter filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration this week. The suit alleges that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials tried to get the social network to reveal the identity of an anonymous account—@ALT_uscis—which has been critical of the agency.

According to the lawsuit, CBP agents issued an administrative summons to Twitter in March asking it to reveal the identity of the user, who claims to be a government employee. CBP demanded “all records” related to the account, threatening to drag Twitter to federal court.

However, Twitter says the user has a right to anonymous speech, and that unmasking the account would violate the First Amendment.

As per policy, CBP declined to comment on the suit.

Meanwhile, Twitter cofounder sold $4 million in company stock this week, according to an SEC filing, and intends to sell more—up to 30% of his share in the company. He is currently Twitter’s largest individual shareholder.

Twitter’s stock is down 15% in recent months, but Williams insists that the move was for “personal” reasons unrelated to the company’s performance. He says he wants to invest more in startups and donate more to charities.