Case 1:20-mc-00036-JEB-ZMF Document 31 Filed 12/03/21 Page 11 of 14 deactivating a user’s account. That would hand Facebook the SCA-on/off switch: it could remove an account or page (which Facebook does without government supervision) and distribute the associated content freely — e.g., to the government or even to other private parties. See Resp. Objections at 26; see also Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr), Twitter (Sept. 24, 2021, 1:32 AM), https://bit.ly/31k2Lpg. Such a scheme would surely “discourage” individuals from using electronic-communications systems and risk “the gradual erosion of [the] precious right [to privacy].” H.R. Rep. No. 99-647, at 19; S. Rep. No. 99-541, at 5. It would also “lead[] to an arbitrary and untenable ‘gap’ in the legal protection of electronic communications,” Hately, 917 F.3d at 798 (citing S. Rep. No. 99-541, at 5), and the Court “do[es] not believe Congress intended such an absurd result when it enacted a statute intended to fill in the gaps in the thenexisting privacy protections for electronic communications.” Id. The House Report, furthermore, reveals that Congress intended the SCA’s protections to extend to backup copies not unlike those at issue in this case. Discussing § 2702 and other provisions, the Report contemplates the SCA’s application to copies of communications stored by service providers, separate and apart from those a user elects to store: Even if the subscriber reads the message and discards or deletes it, the system maintains it as a backup copy for system maintenance and integrity purposes. These records are retrievable and the Committee intends that subscribers and customers be afforded some protection as to these records. Therefore, a provider of electronic communications to the public such as an electronic mail service may not disclose the contents of stored communications unless one of the statutory exceptions in 2702(b) apply. H.R. Rep. No. 99-647, at 72. Although this passage does not clarify whether the House intended these communications to find protection under the ECS or RCS provision of the SCA, the language used — “backup copy” held by a “provider of electronic communications” — suggests that it anticipated that these communications would fall within the “backup protection” category 11