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This isn't how gag orders (or, in the case of online services, NSLs) work. A gag order can compel you not to share data, but they cannot compel you to lie, let alone lie elaborately, as Apple and Amazon at this point would have to be for their denials to be false.

If Apple is lying here, they're lying because they want to, not because something is forcing them to. I believe them.

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"Did you receive an NSL?"

You have been compel to lie, by the government, to answer "NO" if you've received one.

If you can be compelled to lie that you have received an NSL then I do not see why you can't be forced to lie more.

We already compelled speech, why not more?

I thought that you could simply not answer the NSL question (hence warrant canaries)

Iirc that's only in theory. I don't think there has been any precedent set. But I always see people say that a warrant canary is a false sense of security.

> This isn't how gag orders (or, in the case of online services, NSLs) work. A gag order can compel you not to share data, but they cannot compel you to lie, let alone lie elaborately

Is there case-law to support this? I've heard the argument often, but I don't believe it has yet been tested.

It’s a well established doctrine that this is a direct consequence of First Amedment: https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/933/compelled-speec...

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