USA Today pushes back against FBI demands for reader IP addresses Photo via Screengrab.
USA Today is pushing back against the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) as it attempts to uncover the IP addresses of readers who read a certain article during a specific time frame. According to Slate magazine, the demand is part of an ongoing investigation for which the FBI has issued a subpoena.
The publication reports that the law enforcement agency s request is very specific as the demand breaks all the way down to a certain time of day when the article was released on Feb. 2. That article offered details about the series of events that unfolded when agents in Sunrise, Fla. attempted to serve a warrant at a local apartment complex. The situation reportedly escalated into a shooting that claimed the lives of two agents, identified as Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger, and left three other individuals wounded.
The FBI withdrew its subpoena for all the IP addresses and phone numbers of everyone who clicked on one of its stories in February, saying they caught the suspect by other means.
The publisher of USA Today is fighting a very unusual subpoena from the FBI seeking information that could identify readers of a story about a shooting in Florida earlier.