USA Today fights subpoena aimed at readers of Florida FBI shooting storyhttps://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/03/usa-today-subpeona-florida-shooting-491847Newspaper publisher Gannett is fighting an effort by the FBI to try to determine who read a specific USA Today story about a deadly shooting in February near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that left two FBI agents dead and three wounded.
The subpoena, served on Gannett in April, seeks information about who accessed the news article online during a 35-minute window starting just after 8 p.m. on the day of the shootings. The demand — signed by a senior FBI agent in Maryland — does not appear to ask for the names of those who read the story, if the news outlet has such information. Instead, the subpoena seeks internet addresses and mobile phone information that could lead to the identities of the readers.
The information being sought “relates to a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI,” the subpoena says.
I may not be the brightest bulb in the marquee, but I cannot see how the FBI would get anything useful in any investigation by getting the IPs of the 10s or 100s of thousands of people who viewed this USA Today story. This "request" seems bizarre, more like an intimidation of USA Today than looking for useful information.
