ROANOKE, Va. — The Mountain Valley Pipeline is trying to find it who some of its very public online critics are.

The Roanoke Times reported Saturday that the company has filed a subpoena in federal court to try to find out who is behind a Facebook group called Appalachians Against Pipelines.

The group established a Facebook page in 2018.

That’s about the time that tree-sitters began to try to block construction of the natural gas project.

Mountain Valley is asking Facebook to reveal the names and telephone numbers of those who established and maintain the page.

The group says the subpoena is an an effort to intimidate and silence it. Mountain Valley declined to comment.