As seven pro-Palestinian activists who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge two years ago prepare for felony trial, their attorneys are raising First Amendment concerns about a wide-ranging search of their social media activity.
The California Highway Patrol’s search warrant identified Facebook and Instagram accounts they believe belong to the defendants and sought three months of records from parent company Meta, including private messages, contact lists, liked posts, passwords and financial information. Defense attorneys aiming to block the data that was handed over from being used in court argue that the warrant was unconstitutionally broad.
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“You can’t just say, ‘I’m looking for evidence of any crime,’” attorney Shaffy Moeel said. “You have to actually have a very particularized, specified thing that you’re looking for if you’re going to ask a judge to sign off on a warrant like this. And so what they got from Meta is hundreds of gigs of data related to what we think is absolutely First Amendment-protected activity.”
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