Court significantly reins in what data anti-Trump website must give to feds

Enlarge / Protesters set a Trump T-shirt on fire in the street as they make themselves heard following the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A local judge in Washington, DC, has ruled largely in favor of DreamHost, saying that the Department of Justice overstepped when it initially sought 1.3 million IP addresses that were logged at a website that helped organize nationwide protests against President Donald Trump on his inauguration day earlier this year.

Federal authorities had initially obtained a warrant against DreamHost, the host of the disruptj20.org site, as part of its investigation into rioting and other violence on January 20, 2017. The Tuesday ruling comes less than two months after government lawyers told the court it didn't mean to seek so many IP addresses after all.

Under new guidelines, DreamHost will not have to provide IP addresses or any other identifying information unless the government can show that a particular person was involved in alleged criminal behavior.

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