The ACLU is facing mounting criticism after publishing a social media video advising protesters how to better protect their digital privacy — a message critics say arrives at a politically charged moment following major federal prosecutions involving alleged Antifa-linked activists.
The video, titled “Know Your Rights: Privacy and Protests,” features ACLU Senior Policy Counsel Chad Marlow encouraging demonstrators to think carefully about the digital trail they leave behind while attending protests.
“If you’re protesting and not actively using your phone, the best thing you can do to prevent it from sharing information about you and your location is to shut it off entirely,” Marlow says in the video.
The guidance also encourages protesters to consider encrypted communications and avoid livestreaming demonstrations — advice the ACLU frames as protecting privacy while exercising First Amendment rights.
But Government Accountability Institute Director of Research Seamus Bruner says the timing raises serious questions.
“In both of those cases, in the Texas Antifa case and in the Minneapolis anti-ICE rioter case, Signal, the encrypted messaging app, was central to the prosecution’s case against these guys,” Bruner said.
The video appeared just days after federal prosecutors announced that eight North Texas Antifa cell members received a combined 450 years in prison for their roles in a 2025 shooting outside an ICE detention facility.
It also follows federal indictments against 15 alleged Antifa-linked members of Direct Action Minnesota, who face charges including conspiracy to impede a federal officer.
Bruner stressed that privacy rights matter, but argued the guidance could take on a different meaning if criminal conduct is involved.
“If you’re engaging in illegal activity, this absolutely appears to be an obstruction-of-justice-type activity where you’re trying to hide evidence and hide proof that you were engaged in criminal activity,” he said.
Independent journalist Andy Ngo voiced similar concerns during the segment, arguing that the advice against livestreaming protests could reduce the amount of publicly available video that might later be used as evidence in criminal investigations.
Ngo characterized the guidance as suggesting concern that recordings could implicate fellow demonstrators, though that is his interpretation rather than a stated position of the ACLU.
The debate comes as the Trump Administration increases its focus on violent extremist groups. During the same report, it was noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invited ministers from more than 60 countries to discuss what officials describe as a resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism.
Watch the clip above.
