Summary
- Apple
removed apps flagging ICE officer sightings. - Removal
followed law enforcement safety warnings. - The
ICEBlock app had over 1 million downloads. - The
Trump administration pressured Apple for removal.
After law enforcement alerted the internet giant to “safety
risks” linked to ICEBlock and “similar apps,” it said that it
has taken the software out of its software Store.
In a statement, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the
software was “designed to put ICE officers at risk” and
“demanded” that it be taken down.
Such assertions were deemed “patently false” by
the app’s inventor, who also charged Apple with “capitulating to an
authoritarian regime.”
In reaction to President Trump‘s crackdown on illegal
immigration and an increase in ICE raids, many apps, including ICEBlock, were
released this year.
The government is accused
by critics, including the founder of ICEBlock, of abusing its authority and
“bringing terror” to American streets.
The way the free app operates is by displaying immigration
officers’ movements. In the United States, it has been downloaded over a
million times.
Bondi countered that it was being used to target ICE
personnel, claiming that the FBI claimed the guy who killed two detainees at an
ICE facility in Dallas in September had used similar apps to follow the
movements of agents and their cars.
In a statement Apple said:
“We created the App Store to
be a safe and trusted place to discover apps.
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.”
But its creator, Joshua Aaron, denied it posed a threat.
“ICEBlock is no different from crowd sourcing speed
traps, which every notable mapping application, including Apple’s own Maps
app,”
he said.
“This is protected speech under the first amendment of
the United States Constitution.”
How did law enforcement justify safety risks from the apps?
The applications make ICE agents vulnerable to assault and
attacks solely for doing their job by tracking their locations and movements in
real-time.
“Apps like ICEBlock put ICE agents at risk,” and
it crosses into “an intolerable red line” that allows violence to be
committed against law enforcement, warned U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and
other law enforcement officials.
Their concerns include the possibility of those with violent
intentions misusing these apps, in the case of a recent shooting against ICE,
the shooter utilized applications to determine where ICE agents were.
Law enforcement agencies reiterated that apps that disclose
sensitive, operational information interfere with their ability to enforce the law
in a safe manner for personnel.
