Canadian sues U.S. Homeland Security, which allegedly sought his Google data after critical social media posts

A Canadian is fighting back in U.S. federal court over what he says is an attempt by the Department of Homeland Security, through Google, to seek “vast swaths of information” about his personal life following social media posts critical of Donald Trump’s administration.

The Canadian John Doe plaintiff on Monday sued Markwayne Mullin, the current DHS secretary, in a lawsuit that contends DHS is engaged in “a transparent gambit to chill speech the government doesn’t like.” The suit was brought by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) offices in D.C., where DHS is located, and in northern California, the jurisdiction where Google has its headquarters.

“I have long admired the United States for its commitment to free speech,” the plaintiff said in a statement released by the ACLU. “Never in a million years did I think that, after criticizing the U.S. government, I would be targeted with a summons seeking to find out who I am, where I live, where I go and what I read online. You don’t have to be from America to know that this is un-American.”

According to the complaint, the Canadian posts under a pseudonym about political topics on X and other platforms, routinely posting “content critical of President Trump and his administration.” In his social media posts, he frequently tags the user names and accounts of U.S. government officials.

The Gmail account linked to his X account was evidently found by officials in DHS and on Feb. 9, he was informed by Google that they had “received an administrative subpoena issued by the Department of Homeland Security compelling the release of information related to your Google account” for the period between Sept. 1, 2025 and Feb. 4, 2026.

In February, the New York Times reported that Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta “have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas” for information on their users from DHS. The newspaper cited four individuals privy to those requests who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Summons soon after Minnesota blitz

This specific summons arose after a period in which the Canadian made a series of posts critical of Trump’s immigration policies after two U.S.-born activists were killed protesting a deportation blitz in Minnesota. Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigrations and Customs (ICE) officer on Jan. 7, and more than two weeks later, Alex Pretti died after being struck multiple times as two Customs and Border Patrol officers fired their weapons.

Trump administration officials had blistering criticisms of Good and Pretti just hours after their deaths. Vice-President JD Vance called Good a “deranged leftist,” while Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, said Good’s actions in her vehicle in the moments prior to her killing constituted an act of “domestic terrorism.” Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, branded Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and “assassin.”

Minnesota has sued DHS, alleging that federal officials are denying state investigators access to information required to conduct their own probes into the Good and Pretti killings, as well as a non-fatal shooting involving a federal immigration agent.

On Jan. 30, the Canadian X user disparaged ICE in a post that received nearly 96,000 views, according to this week’s complaint.

“Not satisfied with trying to suppress speech at home, the Trump administration is now targeting dissenters abroad,” Michael Perloff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of the District of Columbia, said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed.

Google did not comment on the Canadian case but said it has objected to government requests for user data that are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process. The company has said it supports legislative reform for government data demands that would provide clarity and transparency while protecting the civil liberties of its users.

“When we receive a subpoena, our review process is designed to protect user privacy while meeting our legal obligations,” a Google spokesperson told CBC News. “We inform users when their accounts have been subpoenaed, unless under legal order not to, or in an exceptional circumstance. We review every legal demand and push back against those that are overbroad or improper, including objecting to some entirely.”

In making the request to Google, Homeland Security officials cited Section 1509 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a statute that concerns the government’s ability to enforce customs law by examining “records, statements and declarations.”

John Doe’s lawyers argue it’s an improper use of the statute and that “even if the summons were issued for a proper purpose, the scope of the records sought would still far exceed 1509’s limits on what officials can use it to acquire.”

Canadians wary of U.S. scrutiny

Since Trump took office as president for a second time last year, Canadians have increasingly been subjected to scrutiny upon entering the U.S. The Canadian government in an online advisory has cautioned Canadians that border authorities have “significant” discretion to deny entry to Canadians and that they could have their smartphones and laptops examined.

American customs officers conducted a record number of searches of electronic devices last year of people travelling to the U.S., according to recent statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), although it’s not clear what percentage of searches were conducted at points of entry the U.S. shares with Canada, as opposed to border points shared with Mexico.

The complaint at hand, however, states that John Doe was not seeking entry to the U.S. and has not done so since 2015.

In the first Trump administration, CBP issued a summons to Twitter in 2017 requesting information regarding the account of a user on Twitter, which the company objected to.

The summons was withdrawn, and the inspector general for DHS subsequently issued a report containing criticism and recommendations regarding the “proper use of Section 1509.”

The ACLU is asking for the summons for the Canadian to be withdrawn, as has happened with similar cases involving three Americans it has advocated for.

In one of those other cases, an Instagram user’s information was reportedly sought after they posted a border agent’s purported name and wrote that they should be “welcomed to the wall of shame.” In another, a person received a summons through Google after directly emailing a U.S. government official to apply “common sense and decency” in the case of an asylum seeker whose case drew national attention.

CBC News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment but has yet to hear back.

Read the civil complaint from the Canadian John Doe: