ICEBlock, an app that alerts people to sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in their area, has been removed from the App Store at the request of the US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Here are the details.
Apple removes ICEBlock following deadly shooting
As 9to5Mac readers will probably remember, a few months ago, ICEBlock became the top social networking app on the App Store, following the White House’s condemnation of the app, and a threat by Bondi that the developer, Joshua Aaron, “had better watch out,” as her department was “looking at him.”
Since then, the controversy surrounding the ICE crackdown has escalated, with both ICE agents and suspects being shot and killed in raids and other confrontations.
One such deadly confrontation took place last month in Dallas, where an ICE detainee was killed, and two others were critically injured. One of them died this week.
According to authorities, the suspect of the shooting, Joshua Jahn, had searched for apps such as ICEBlock on his phone shortly before opening fire.
That, apparently, gave Bondi enough leverage to force Apple to remove ICEBlock from the App Store, as reported by Fox Business:
“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so. (…) 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.”
In a statement to Fox Business regarding ICEBlock’s removal from the App Store, Apple said the following:
“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.”
Following the app’s removal, Joshua Aaron, the app’s developer, had this to say:
“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. (…) 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.”
What’s your take on ICEBlock’s removal from the App Store? Let us know in the comments.
Update: a previous version of this article stated that an ICE officer had been killed in the Dallas deadly shooting. That was incorrect. We regret the error.
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