Has anyone received one of those "legal" emails from Reddit?

submitted by asterias from (self.MeanwhileOnReddit)

A friend has received an email from Reddit about legal action against him:

Reddit received valid legal process from a law enforcement entity directing Reddit to disclose information about your account.

Because Reddit also received a court order prohibiting Reddit from disclosing the existence of the legal process at the time, Reddit was unable to provide you with notification of the legal process before it produced responsive information, which Reddit did on February 22, 2019.

We cannot provide you with legal advice. If you have questions about the legal process, we recommend that you consult an attorney.

Reddit Legal Support

This email was sent to him 8 months ago, but he noticed just now.

According to what he told me, he hasn't posted anything to justify this and he has been freaking out about what is going on. So far he hasn't been contacted by any law enforcement agency (though his country is known for beaurocracy and how slow things are).

Also, and as far I can tell, he hasn't been into any dubious activity on Reddit, but he might have posted in various subs that aren't exactly welcome by Reddit (in a political sense). His posts can sometimes be described as "politically incorrect", but certainly not illegal.

Is there something he should do at this point? He is a young man living in a small country and his legal and financial resources are limited (to put it mildly).

What is your take of this? Do you have any similar experience with this kind of thing?

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[–]FormosaOolong 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The user has not been accused of any wrongdoing in any sort of legal sense.

If he is overly concerned, he could start by submitting the email to Reddit to verify if it is indeed from them and not a spoof. Also, there are other threads on Reddit about this exact email, most of them deriving from users in Japan, and one grumpy user who may be harassing Redditors he doesn't like: https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/7nzvr7/email_from_reddit_legal_support_requesting_my/

[–]asterias[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Thanks for the answer. It looks a pretty similar case, with the difference that this time it is stated that

Reddit also received a court order prohibiting Reddit from disclosing the existence of the legal process at the time

so my friend is worried that there might be something really sinister behind this. Like some crazy accusation where you get entangled into some kafka-esque process.

[–]JasonCarswell 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Prohibiting disclosure is something the deep state does to sites, thus the /s/SaiditCanary/.

[–]FormosaOolong 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If I were him I"d start by verifying that it really was from Reddit Legal Team. Seems super sketch and unoffish to me. ETA: did the email mention his user name?