'Capitulating': Apple slammed after ICE tracker pulled from its app store
Caving to what the developer described as “pressure from the Trump administration,” Apple has removed an application that allowed users to report and track US Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in their area.
“ICEBlock,” which has over 1 million downloads, allowed users to report sightings of ICE agents within a “5-mile radius of your current location” to alert immigrants and others in the community fearful of being swept up in President Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” crusade.
Its developer, Joshua Aaron, told NBC News that he created it in April because he felt like he was “watching history repeat itself” when he saw things like “5-year-olds in courtrooms with no representation” and “college students being disappeared for their political opinions.”
“When I saw what was happening in this country, I really just wanted to do something to help fight back,” he said.
Downloads of the app surged in June as the administration accelerated its deportation efforts, aiming for a daily quota of 3,000 arrests. That’s also when CNN published a piece about the app that caught the attention of the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said she was “working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them [CNN]” for reporting on the app, which she said was “actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations.”
Courts have long held that recording the actions of law enforcement is protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Aaron contended, in a statement emailed to 404 Media, that “ICEBlock is no different from crowd-sourcing speed traps, which every notable mapping application, including Apple’s own Maps app, implements as part of its core services.”
Fox Business reported Thursday that Apple had removed ICEBlock following direct pressure from the Justice Department, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store—and Apple did so,” Bondi said in a statement. “ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.”
Following the shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas last week, which resulted in the deaths of two detainees and the critical injury of another, federal officials claimed that the shooter had used ICE tracking apps; however, they stopped short of naming any specific app or claiming that he used it to plan the shooting. Aaron has dismissed these charges as politically motivated.
Aaron shared a copy of Apple’s email informing him that ICEBlock had been removed with 404 Media. It said the program violated the App Store’s policy against “objectionable content,” specifically its section banning “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted groups, particularly if the app is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or harm a targeted individual or group.”
The email then said, “Information provided to Apple by law enforcement shows that your app violates Guideline 1.1.1 because its purpose is to provide location information about law enforcement officers that can be used to harm such officers individually or as a group.”
Aaron disputed this characterization, saying: “Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.”
Apple has said it also removed “similar apps” from the App Store, citing law enforcement concerns.
The removals come as immigration operations around the country have drawn increasing national scrutiny, with a number of high-profile acts of brutality in just the past week.
On Tuesday night, just hours after Trump said U.S. soldiers should use American cities as “training grounds,” federal law enforcement agents descended upon an apartment complex in Chicago where witnesses told the Chicago Sun-Times they broke down residents’ doors, smashed furniture and belongings, and dragged dozens of people, including children, into U-Haul vans as part of an operation that nabbed 37 people.
Last week, an agent was filmed throwing an Ecuadorian asylum seeker to the ground shortly after her husband was detained in front of their family at an immigration courthouse in New York City, where they’d come for an immigration hearing. DHS briefly put the officer on leave, calling his conduct “unacceptable,” before returning him to the job three days later.
On Tuesday, a photojournalist had to be hospitalized after an ICE agent pushed him to the ground at the same facility, leading him to hit his head on the floor.
“I am incredibly disappointed by Apple’s actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” Aaron wrote. “We are determined to fight this with everything we have. Our mission has always been to protect our neighbors from the terror this administration continues to [rain] down on the people of this nation. We will not be deterred. We will not stop. #resist.”