Apple Removes ICEBlock After Trump Admin Pressure
“The evidence is clear that this was intended as an assault on ICE personnel who come to work everyday to do their job.”
Apple has removed ICEBlock, a controversial mobile app that allowed users to track the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, after the Trump administration raised alarms that the tool endangered federal officials.
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed Thursday that the Department of Justice demanded Apple pull the app, which had been downloaded over a million times. As she told Fox Digital:
“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. This Department of Justice will continue making every effort to protect our brave federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe.”
Apple issued its own statement defending the removal, emphasizing the danger highlighted by law enforcement. According to NBC News:
“We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps,” Apple said. “Based on information we’ve received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store.”
Concerns over ICEBlock grew following a deadly shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas last month. Authorities said the attacker, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, had searched for ICE tracking apps before opening fire. Marcos Charles, acting director for ICE removal operations, made clear the growing risks agents face:
“The evidence is clear that this was intended as an assault on ICE personnel who come to work everyday to do their job. Violent rhetoric has led to an over 1000% increase in assaults on ICE officers, and it has to stop.”
ICEBlock’s creators quickly fired back, posting a defiant statement on their website:
“We are incredibly disappointed by Apple’s actions. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move. Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.
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. This is protected speech under the first amendment of the United States Constitution.
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 reign down on the people of this nation. We will not be deterred. We will not stop. #resist”
The controversy escalated after a deadly Dallas attack, where authorities said the gunman searched for ICE tracking apps before targeting an ICE facility. As ICE’s Marcos Charles warned, violent rhetoric has driven “an over 1000% increase in assaults on ICE officers.”
In that environment, Apple’s removal of ICEBlock is more than a policy choice — it is a vital step to safeguard federal officials from harassment and violence while carrying out their lawful duties.
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Comments
Not related to the ICE blessed by the pope the other day I assume.
The ICE Block app had its uses.
Turn it on just prior to walking into a Home Depot or Walmart and you’d have the store almost to your self. Ditto the local emergency room.
Years ago, I was on business in northern California with the USN. Heading out to work in the. morning from the motel I was at, I grabbed my walkie talkie since I’m an amateur radio operator. That morning there was a lot of chatter on the ole radio. Hmmm. Strange. Not usually like that. I also thought it passing strange that all the maids were running down the street away from the motel.
True story…no sh*t.
Uh, how would turning it on make illegal immigrants scatter all by itself?
If they know ICE is in the area they will make themselves scarce.
No, they will arm themselves.
Not likely.
You don’t just turn it on, you turn it on, then tap “I see ICE here.”
Our local Walmart almost shut down because it catered to a certain group of people.
Press the button and BAM!!!! The aisles emptied.
All they did was stop people from downloading it.
The app is still active and working on apple phones.
Yup, they have locked the barn door.. After.
That’s an unfortunate artifact of the way the App Store works. Technically, Apple itself could cobble together an “update” for the app that replaced the original one and didn’t work, but there are almost certainly gross legal problems with that.
And if you actually allow your phone to auto-update your apps then you get exactly what you deserve. Just turn auto-update off and then select the apps you want to update and ignore the ones that you don’t want to update. Including this app. Problem solved.
People who pay attention know that. Which means you’ll still catch over 85%.
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. This is protected speech under the first amendment of the United States Constitution.
It’s interesting for me….I am completely in favor of ICE and they are doing necessary work. I don’t like this app. However can someone clarify the difference for me between this where the Govt called Twitter et al and had them de-platform doctors who were anti-COVID injection. Government -speech it doesn’t like – pressure on a private company to control that speech.
Arguably the safety people is an issue in both cases…
Milhouse? Anybody?
An underlying difference is that while de-platforming doctors (and others) for “heresy” unquestionably caused harm, you COULD argue the intent was TO prevent harm.
(Which it at least did for Big Pharma and perhaps Fauci’s Stock Portfolio.)
The “harm” being prevented by this particular App – is that folks here illegally might otherwise face having immigration law enforced on them.
If you don’t WANT a particular law enforced, the legal path to do that is have the law changed or removed entirely.
The harm INTENDED by a sizable number of the App’s users is that they can better organize to attack law enforcement officers violently.
Addendum – IceBlock’s creators liken their App to the (legal) use of info such as the “crowd sourcing of speed traps”. I’ve yet to hear of troopers being snipered or assaulted by users of (say) Apple Map’s Speed Trap warnings.
Cops I know like to spoof Waze.
Warning people about speed traps is protected speech, because all it does is warn them to obey the law as they pass that spot. They should be obeying the law all the time, so assisting them in obeying it for at least those five minutes is a good thing and not something the law can punish.
Warning people about ICE raids isn’t quite the same, since it’s not warning people to get out of the country for those few hours, but merely to go break the law elsewhere, but it’s probably still protected speech.
The allegation here is that this app isn’t just warning people to avoid ICE, but alerting people to where ICE agents are, so they can attack them. If you were telling people about speed traps so they could ambush the cops and shoot them, that would be treated very differently from a warning to slow down as they pass the spot.
Thanks…. good arguments
Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm (ICE) law enforcement officers. This is patently false.
BS from communist collaborators.
Aiding and abetting. Lawsuit time for Apple programmers.
Uh Spike –
From the article above this one:
“This morning, during routine patrolling in Broadview, in the same area of Chicago that law enforcement were assaulted yesterday, our brave law enforcement officers were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.
Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
Is it possible that the Ice Block App could have been used to target the location of these Ice Agents?
Would that seem like a reasonable possibility to you?
I’d like your answer please.
One problem with Spike’s argument is that it is so ambiguous that the two of us interpreted it completely oppositely.
Apple’s own programmers are not involved. The App Store hosts apps created by independent and unaffiliated firms and independents worldwide.
When you see supposed adults using:
#resist
You know they are a little more than slightly unhinged, they do indeed call for violence and harm and they will lie to you in an instant.
I’ve never heard of anyone staging an armed ambush of speed enforcement officers — though with the radical Left on its current trajectory, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened in the next twelve months.
iCE and the Fed LE protecting them are acting in the performance of their wholly legal and justified duties. An agreement app that was whose entire purpose was created and designed purely and solely to obstruct them – even attack, injure or kill them in the process of performing said duties – is against the law. The creators should be arrested and held criminally liable as accomplices, at the least, for any and all crimes their app has encouraged and/or enabled.
EDIT: * delete word “agreement” from “agreement app”
Should just be the word app. Autofill got the best of me.