Meet Canary Watch, A Way To Disclose Gag Orders Without Disclosing Them
To create a warrant canary, a company starts making a regular disclosure—on its website, say, or in a regularly published transparency report—that it has not received a particular data request from national-security or law-enforcement agencies. If the company modifies or fails to publish that particular disclosure, the canary effectively “dies,” allowing observant readers to infer that the company has been served with an order for data and forbidden to discuss it.
.. For instance, the government frequently argues that its restrictions aren’t burdensome because they only prevent disclosure of information the government itself provided. Suppressing a warrant canary, however, is a more overt form of censorship that might give judges pause.
.. While courts have sometimes compelled true speech—think of those Surgeon General’s warnings on cigarettes, for instance—none appear to have upheld compelled false speech.