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Inspector General
John Roth described the probe in a letter to Senator Ron Wyden,
an Oregon Democrat who had asked for an investigation due to
concerns about free speech protections.
In a lawsuit on April 6, Twitter disclosed that it received a
summons in March from the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border
Protection, an agency within Homeland Security, demanding
records about an account on the social media platform identified
by the handle @ALT_uscis.
The account has featured posts critical of President Donald
Trump's immigration policies, leading Twitter to complain in its
lawsuit that the summons was an unlawful attempt to suppress
dissent.
The agency dropped its demand of Twitter the day after the suit
was filed.
Customs bureau spokesman Mike Friel said on Friday that the
bureau requested the inspector general's review and will fully
support it.
The people behind the Twitter account have not disclosed their
identities, but the use of "ALT" with a government agency
acronym has led many to assume government employees were behind
the tweets critical of Trump.
The lawsuit said the account "claims to be" the work of at least
one federal immigration employee. USCIS is the acronym of United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a component of
Homeland Security.
Roth's office is charged with investigating waste, fraud and
abuse within Homeland Security. He wrote in his letter that he
was looking at whether the summons to Twitter "was improper in
any way, including whether CBP abused its authority."
"DHS OIG is also reviewing potential broader misuse of summons
authority at the department," he added.
Wyden's office posted the letter online. A representative for
Roth could not immediately be reached for comment. A Twitter
spokeswoman declined to comment.
(Reporting by David Ingram; Editing by Tom Brown and Diane
Craft)
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