Freedom of expression online is again under assault, as the FBI and Secret Service have begun to target the Seattle IMC in intimidating fishing expeditions, demanding that they turn over server logs despite the fact that federal agents have admitted that the IMC itself was not suspected of any criminal activity and there was no violation of US law. Thankfully, a sane judge has lifted the gag order that was imposed on Seattle IMC, so they have been able to publish their side of the story; federal sources leaked information about the story with impunity before the gag order was rescinded, showing that apparently the FBI’s only concern was to be able to spin the story as it pleased without backtalk.

In other good news, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is standing up for the IMC on this one, and the FBI’s fishing expedition is so blatant and poorly constructed that it will hopefully be laughed out of court. But this sets a very troubling precedent for the revival — or continuance, really; it never much stopped — of the FBI’s repressive surveillance against activist organizations. As the left / anarchist activist coalition grows in power, power brokers are getting scared. You could see this already in the Summit of the Americas, World Economic Forum, etc. buckling down into cities temporarily turned into militarized police states. The growing willingness of the free world’s states to use these kind of repressive tactics is something that we really have to keep a watch on, and fight back against.