Reddit uses 'warrant canary' signal to warn users that the government sought-out user data

It appears that US national authorities may have used Reddit to spy on people.

The social news networking platform on Thursday removed the “warrant canary” from its annual report suggesting that the US government has secretly requested for user data under the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

Some writs issued by the government are done in secret and the recipients of these requests cannot acknowledge its existence publicly as they can face criminal penalties which is probably why the company used a warrant canary in the first place.

What is a warrant canary? A warrant canary is usually used when a company cannot publicly inform their users that they have been served with a subpoena. So they do the next best thing--tell their users that they have not been served with a subpoena and if the warning is removed, users are to assume that the company has been served with a subpoena… If that makes sense.

In Reddit’s 2014 transparency report, the company wrote, "As of January 29, 2015, Reddit has never received a National Security Letter, an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or any other classified request for user information. If we ever receive such a request, we would seek to let the public know it existed."

This was noticeable missing from their 2015 transparency report that was published Thursday.

CEO Steve Huffman (known as "spez” on the site) said, "I've been advised not to say anything one way or the other."

“Even with the canaries, we’re treading a fine line. The whole thing is icky,” added spez.