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Twitter's lawsuit worked: Trump no longer wants to unmask anonymous critic

That was quick.

On Thursday afternoon, Twitter said it was filing suit against the Department of Homeland Security to stop the government from unmasking the identity of a pseudonymous critic of the Trump administration. The American Civil Liberties Union backed the suit and said it would appear in court on Twitter’s behalf.

Less than 24 hours later, the government has backed down and dropped its suit, according to a new legal filing from the company. On Friday, Twitter said Justice Department lawyers reached out to say that the initial summons — an order from Customs and Border Patrol to reveal the identity behind the “@ALT_USCIS” account, which often criticizes Trump’s immigration policies — had been dropped.

In turn, Twitter kiboshed its lawsuit against the government.

A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment on the matter, and a representative for DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the summons was dropped.

@ALT_USCIS, one of many “alt-gov” sites launched after the election, can presumably continue to tweet its parody of the Trump administration with impunity.