In announcing the criminal charges of a Russian national for alleged midterm election conspiring, Department of Justice officials explicitly thanked a pair of significant, if somewhat unusual, cooperators: Facebook and Twitter.

“The investigative team received exceptional cooperation from private sector companies, such as Facebook and Twitter,” read the DOJ's announcement. The DOJ statement came alongside the unsealing of a complaint that alleges that defendant Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova conspired to tilt the U.S. midterms and other elections by purchasing advertisements and creating posts and groups on social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Recent scandals involving social media's role in election interference may be changing technology companies' hardline approach to government requests for user information. Former DOJ trial attorney Peter Henning said in a typical government investigation, social media companies would “demand a subpoena or a search warrant. Though because this is Russia interference, I don't think they don't have the same privacy concerns.”