They can't force you. Just like they can't force you to not tweet.

They can sure sue the hell out of you after you stop updating though.

The idea is that forced speech is different than free speech. That means that someone can force you to not say something, but not force you to say something.

so there are two things:

- The government cannot force you to update the canary. A court cannot get you to update it, because it's forced speech to demand an update.

- You created the canary of your own accord, and are responsible for its effects. Not updating the canary is, effectively, speech.

Though, from [0]:

"Realistically, though, courts compel speech all the time. Court-ordered apologies, disclosures, and notices are not unusual. And if ever a court would be inclined to compel speech, it would be in a situation like this one, where a company intentionally set out to get around a gag order with this kind of convoluted sea-lawyering."

[0]:http://law.stackexchange.com/questions/268/is-there-any-lega...

What if they could do it instead of you, even if you use distributed signing how difficult would it be?