A legal group tied to the Antifa movement gave tech tips for anti-deportation activists to make it harder for law enforcement to investigate them in a Nov. 25 webinar.
Protesters should take great care to secure or delete data on their electronic devices before, rather than after, they are threatened with arrest or charges, the Oregon-based Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) told its audience in the public video call. Oregon, especially Portland, has become a hotbed of protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that have led to violence, arson and dozens of arrests since President Donald Trump took office.
The Civil Liberties Defense Center tells allies how to secure data from law enforcement investigators in a Nov. 25, 2025. (Screenshot/Civil Liberties Defense Center)
Slides in the webinar, titled “Your Right to Protest ICE,” advised viewers to encrypt messages with apps such as Signal and Keybase, use virtual private networks (VPNs), stop using Google, lock devices with passcodes and even enable “remote wiping” to delete data from a seized device.
“DELETE SHIT OFTEN!!!!” a slide in the webinar says. It also tells viewers to consider whether they really “need” to write something down via digital text or paper if it could potentially be used against them later.
“If the ‘document’ doesn’t exist, there is no threat of it being turned over to the opponent or stolen/seized,” the slide says.
The CLDC has a history of providing legal defense to activists affiliated with Antifa, the “antifascist” movement that Trump designated a domestic terrorist organization in September. The Trump administration won convictions in the first official Antifa terrorism prosecution in U.S. history in November, with five pleading guilty to providing material support to an alleged Antifa cell linked to a July 4 shooting attack at a Texas ICE facility.
CLDC attorney Lauren Regan, however, claimed during the webinar that Antifa is purely an “ideology.”
The Civil Liberties Defense Center advises viewers in a Nov. 25, 2025, webinar to lock their electronic devices in the event of a law enforcement probe. (Screenshot/Civil Liberties Defense Center)
“In general, you know, Antifa is not a criminal organization or an organization of any kind,” Regan said. “It is a political ideology, and so everything that’s going on with regard to that is far more political rhetoric and propaganda than anything that is legally enforceable, in our opinion.”
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