All the more reason to make app-independent services


Apple Removes Apps That Let Users Track ICE

BY GARETH VIPERS AND ROLFE WINKLER

The Wall Street Journal
Oct 04, 2025

Apple blocked apps that enable users to track U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after pressure from the Justice Department.\r

ICEBlock, a widely used tracking app, was dropped from the company’s App Store after concerns were raised by the Justice Department that it could put law-enforcement officers at risk.\r

“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,” a spokesman for Apple said Friday.\r

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department demanded that Apple remove the app. “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,” Bondi said.\r

ICEBlock describes itself on its website as “an innovative, completely anonymous crowdsourced platform that allows users to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity with just two taps on their phone.”\r

The website says ICE has been involved in “alleged civil rights abuses and failures to adhere to constitutional principles and due process, making it crucial for communities to stay informed about its operations.”\r

Joshua Aaron, the app’s developer, said ICEBlock was engaged in protected speech and compared it to apps, including Apple’s own maps app, that crowdsource speed traps. “Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” he said.\r

Last month, FBI Director Kash Patel said the man who shot at a Dallas ICE field office and killed two detainees had “searched apps that tracked the presence of ICE agents” when planning his attack.\r

Fox News earlier reported the ICEBlock app’s removal. Fox Corp. and The Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.\r

Apple’s move is the latest by a technology or social-media company facing pressure from the federal government over the information available through their products.\r

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said in February the agency was looking into a San Francisco radio station after it broadcast the live locations of undercover ICE vehicles and agents.\r

During the pandemic crisis, President Joe Biden criticized Facebook and other social-media companies for Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on their platforms, and his administration flagged problematic posts and asked Facebook to remove posts more quickly.\r

At the same time technology and social-media companies have dialed back their efforts to moderate content on their platforms. In January, Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook and Instagram would end fact-checking and remove speech restrictions.\r

Like other tech executives, Apple CEO Tim Cook has worked hard to stay in the good graces of the Trump White House, primarily to avoid tariff pressure on the company’s foreign supply chain.\r

He regularly visits and calls President Trump, has made repeated pledges to invest more in the U.S. and personally donated $1 million to Trump’s second-term inaugural committee.

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