DOJ, ACLU Spar Over Redacted Documents In Social Media FOIA Case

• Dispute over FOIA Exemptions 7(E) and (b)(5)

• Judge ordered in camera document review

By David McAfee, Bloomberg Law, July 2, 2021, 5:01 PM

The Department of Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation sparred in federal court Friday over how much disclosure is warranted in a Freedom of Information Act case brought in California over social media monitoring programs.

The ACLU filed the suit in January of 2019, and is seeking records that relate to the U.S. government’s collection and monitoring of social media information for various purposes. In November 2019, Judge Edward M. Chen of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the FBI couldn’t refuse to confirm or deny the existence of records pertaining to ...

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See district court’s 2019 decision here.