> You're right, I was quick to judge and patronize the previous comment, which isn't helpful. My b.
No offense taken!
> I think what irked me, specifically, is the way the question was phrased, as though guilt was the default assumption, which is absurd to me.
I tend to ask a lot of open ended questions on HN as I like to read and gauge the variety of responses. While usually driven by my own opinions of right and wrong, I don't uniformly stick to asking it from my particular angle either. In fact, I'm generally more interested in the responses on the other side.
> Has there been any evidence linking the users of this site directly to this riot? My core issue is that this seems to me to be a case of attacking political opponents through the legal system.
In this situation my understand is that there were rioters who were using the website in question as a means of congregating. I don't see this as going after political opponents. I see it as going after violent anarchists. I don't care whether they're far left or far right, I don't want anyone like that operating with impunity.
> What evidence do they have that there is relevant information in those records directly tied to someone who committed a crime? I fail to see anything in this article that actually mentions a valid reason for this search.
I'm not sure but if the site was used by rioters to conspire to riot, I'd imagine it could be useful in tracking down how they communicated, who they are, and where else they were plotting or targeting.
> Their original request covered over a million users. How could that possibly be reasonable?
The website in question lists out[1] organizations that are listed by government agencies as domestic terrorists[2]. Does the number having six zeros in the number of people involved make it unreasonable? If a website pledges to commit anarchist destruction, a million people create accounts, and then some large number of people show up to commit said destructive acts, why wouldn't the full list be fair game?
[1]: http://www.disruptj20.org/event/disruptj20-protest-the-inaug...
[2]: https://www.njhomelandsecurity.gov/analysis/anarchist-extrem...
