Irish Police Used Secret Court Order To Extract Info From Journalists. Elon’s X Shut It Down.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X is being hailed in Ireland for its defense of the free press after it declined to comply with a demand from Irish authorities for confidential user data from one of the nation’s only independent news outlets.

An Irish court order, issued on June 13, 2024, and obtained by The Daily Wire, sought not only private account details, but also a log of IP addresses and messages tied to the Gript Media’s coverage of the April protests against the forced housing of undocumented migrants by the Irish government.

The order, granted under Ireland’s Criminal Justice Act 1994 at the request of Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police, directed X to produce extensive data linked to Gript Media’s official X account, @griptmedia. The court order specifically sought subscriber and registration details, including all logged IP addresses, private messages that would have exposed confidential informants, attachments, and posted videos from April 25-28, 2024.

In a February email to Gript, X notified Gript of Ireland’s June request and said it would not comply.

“X has not produced information related to your account in response to this legal process,” the email said, according to a copy obtained by The Daily Wire. “One of our core values is to defend and respect the user’s voice. Accordingly, it is our policy to notify users of requests for their account information as soon as the law allows us too, unless we’re generally prohibited from doing so.”

In April, Gript extensively covered protests in Newtownmountkennedy, where Irish citizens opposed the establishment of an “asylum seeker” accommodation center. The demonstrations escalated on April 25, with the Garda Public Order Unit using force, including pepper spray, against protesters. Gript’s journalist Fatima Gunning was caught in the clashes, an incident captured on video and widely circulated online.

According to court documents obtained by The Daily Wire, it was shortly after the publication of these videos that the Gardaí sought legal authority to access Gript’s X account, a move seen by journalists as an attempt to intimidate those seeking to expose state misconduct.

Gary Kavanagh, Gript’s deputy editor, condemned the order calling it a “direct attack on press freedom” designed to deter sources from speaking to journalists.

“The role of journalism is to hold power to account, but how can we do that when the state is using secret court orders to access our private communications?” Kavanagh said. “This is not just about Gript; this is about the future of a free press in Ireland.”

He also praised X for its “commitment to free speech.”

“If this had happened under the previous management of Twitter, we might never have even known about it,” Kavanagh said. “The fact that Musk’s team stood firm is a testament to their commitment to free speech and transparency.”

Gunning, the journalist, told The Daily Wire that if X complied with the order, she would have been “powerless” as a reporter.

“As a journalist, if I cannot establish trust of confidentiality with sources if needs be, I am in many ways rendered powerless to report on issues of concern to the Irish people,” Gunning said.

“I can put my hand on my heart and say that I believe my reporting on the situation in Newtownmountkennedy was fair to both the protestors and the Gardaí,” she said. “Anyone interested doesn’t need to take my word for this: they can simply watch the many videos I posted from the scene which did not give favorable coverage to either side.”

“Nothing was concealed from the public on my part, so to have our national police force use laws originally intended to tackle those funding terrorism against my colleagues and it feels like nothing more than a gross abuse of power and Irish law.”

Kavanagh says Gript has since instructed legal counsel to challenge the warrant’s legitimacy, suspecting it may have been improperly awarded. “If the Irish state can do this to Gript today, it can do it to any journalist tomorrow,” Kavanagh stated.

Reached for comment by The Daily Wire, a Garda Síochána spokesman “declined to comment on ongoing investigations,” but defended the use of court orders, stating that law enforcement has a duty to obtain all available evidence when investigating alleged criminal activity.

“We operate within the legal framework set out by the Irish courts and judicial oversight is always applied in such cases,” the spokesman said.

The force did not address concerns about press freedoms or the implications of using anti-crime legislation against journalists.

This is only the latest of a number of controversies amid growing concerns over state surveillance and media suppression in Ireland and the European Union. Critics argue that granting police unrestricted access to social media accounts could undermine free speech and chill the press, particularly in countries where major social media companies, including X, maintain European headquarters.

The incident also ties into a broader debate on Ireland’s housing crisis and immigration policies. Many protesters in Newtownmountkennedy argued that the government’s prioritization of undocumented “asylum seekers” for housing left native Irish citizens waiting years for accommodations. The government’s approach, coupled with its crackdown on journalists covering these protests, has only inflamed public distrust.

X’s refusal to comply with the court order, however, underscores the platform’s commitment to free speech.

As the Irish government faces mounting international criticism over its treatment of independent journalists, its handling of immigration protests, and the potential misuse of legal mechanisms to silence dissenting voices, Gript Media remains resolute—vowing to challenge the order in court.

Ireland’s prime minister Micheál Martin, known as the Taoiseach, will be in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House.