Because there's lots of discussion about legally coerced access to data that's managed by tech companies -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14615414 was on the front page yesterday -- and this is an instance where law-enforcement tried to use those legal authorities to try to get FB to cough up data with rather untoward intent.

Because it highlights the sometimes disturbing intersection between technology and the real world

And a counter question: why do techies pretend they have no stake in the civil society they live in?

If you build a service that collects and stores a bunch of information the state will use their power to compel you to hand it over.

That's bad enough now, but several people on HN know Holocaust survivors, or lived in countries with oppressive regimes.

Anti-totalitarianism is de facto hacker-friendly