The subpoena wars: unmasking anonymous Redditors

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society used a DMCA Section 512(h) subpoena to try to unmask an anonymous r/exjw critic; a federal court quashed it on fair-use and anonymous-speech grounds in March 2020.

After r/Screenwriting users called certain screenwriting competitions scams, the contests' operator sued the subreddit's volunteer moderator and 50+ unnamed users for defamation; the moderator was dismissed under Section 230.

Film-copyright holders subpoenaed Reddit to unmask six users who had commented about piracy, hoping to use the posts as evidence in a suit against the ISP RCN; a federal magistrate judge quashed the subpoena on First Amendment grounds.

In a parallel case tied to a copyright suit against the ISP Grande Communications, film producers again sought to unmask six Reddit users; the Northern District of California again denied the motion to compel on First Amendment grounds.

A third film-studio unmasking attempt, tied to a copyright suit against the ISP Frontier, was rejected by the district court in 2024 and appealed to the Ninth Circuit; the appeal was ultimately dismissed as moot after the underlying case settled, leaving no appellate ruling.

A scientist obtained a sweeping restraining order against a Reddit moderator who criticised her over the Lucy Letby case, but a California court quashed it for lack of jurisdiction and called the anti-SLAPP arguments compelling.

Reddit joined Yelp, Glassdoor, Indeed, Tripadvisor and PubPeer in a New York appeal supporting an anonymous blogger; the Appellate Division quashed subpoenas seeking the blogger's identity and adopted the protective Dendrite standard for unmasking anonymous speakers.

In December 2025 a federal judge denied a request by Royel Otis guitarist Leroy Bressington (Royel Maddell) to compel Reddit to identify users who had posted serious allegations about him, calling the application overreaching.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board asked an Ontario court to compel Reddit to identify an anonymous user it accused of posting dozens of false and defamatory comments about a school and staff; Reddit opposed the disclosure.

Anonymous moderators of a subreddit critical of YouTuber Ethan Klein fought his legal effort to compel Reddit and Discord to reveal their identities, arguing that unmasking would expose them to harassment, extortion, and threats of violence.

Cybersecurity firm Cycurion and its CEO used court-ordered subpoenas to Reddit and Stocktwits to identify an anonymous poster, then amended their defamation suit in April 2026 to name him; the claims remain unproven.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Reddit's CEO for internal communications with the European Commission and EU member states about content-moderation compliance, as part of a congressional investigation into alleged 'foreign censorship' of American speech.

In 2026 the federal government sought to unmask an anonymous Reddit user who criticized ICE — first via an administrative summons citing the 1930 Tariff Act, then via a Washington, D.C. grand-jury subpoena — prompting motions to quash on First Amendment grounds.