Apple Pulls Iceblock App From The App Store

Apple has removed nan “Waze but for ICE sightings” app ICEBlock from its App Store, arsenic reported antecedently by Business Insider. A station from its developer relayed Apple’s App Review connection astir nan ban, saying, “We conscionable received a connection from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from nan App Store owed to ‘objectionable content.’ The only point we tin ideate is this is owed to unit from nan Trump Admin. We person responded and we’ll conflict this!”

The ICEBlock app roseate to nan apical of nan App Store’s charts this summer aft being targeted by Trump management officials, pinch US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling it an “obstruction of justice,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi claiming it was “not a protected speech.”

Today, Bondi took in installments for nan app’s removal, saying to Fox News Digital, “We reached retired to Apple coming demanding they region nan ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so. ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents astatine consequence conscionable for doing their jobs, and unit against rule enforcement is an intolerable reddish statement that cannot beryllium crossed.” ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron is quoted successful nan aforesaid study saying, it counts complete 1.1 cardinal users, and that “Apple has claimed they received accusation from rule enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm rule enforcement officers. This is patently false.”

Apple made akin claims successful 2019 when it removed HKMap, an app that allowed Hong Kong protesters to trace nan movements of rule enforcement, pinch CEO Tim Cook telling employees that “over nan past respective days we received reliable information, from nan Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau, arsenic good arsenic from users successful Hong Kong, that nan app was being utilized maliciously to target individual officers for unit and to victimize individuals and spot wherever nary constabulary are present.”

At nan time, lawmakers from some sides of nan aisle spoke retired against “Apple’s censorship of apps.” A letter signed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), and Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) said, “Cases for illustration these raise existent interest astir whether Apple and different ample US firm entities will front to increasing Chinese demands alternatively than suffer entree to a cardinal Chinese consumers.”

Now, nan Trump management is restricting reside arsenic portion of a push against a vaguely defined threat of “antifa.”

As Elizabeth Lopatto and Sarah Jeong wrote earlier today:

Antifa, arsenic described successful nan national information statesmanlike memorandum (NSPM), is some everything and nothing. It is successful forums and societal media and in-person meetings. It is successful acquisition organizations and nonprofit institutions. It is protests (“riots”) not conscionable in Portland, but successful Los Angeles arsenic well, whether against Trump’s migration policies or, separately, “anti-police and ‘criminal justice’ riots.” It is nan doxxing of masked and equipped ICE agents. It is nan “rhetoric” connected nan bullets alleged to beryllium engraved by Charlie Kirk’s slayer — referring, it seems, to an unused slug casing with a video crippled fastener combo connected it.

So antifa could beryllium a kid successful a achromatic disguise tossing a ceramic astatine a CCTV camera astatine an ICE facility. Antifa could beryllium nan grandma connected nan sidewalk holding a motion reference “DONALD TRUMP IS A FASCIST.” Antifa is ACAB. Antifa is Fuck ICE. Antifa is No Kings. Antifa mightiness beryllium a reference group, a teach-in, an Instagram inducement for communal aid. Antifa could beryllium the ICEBlock app, and nan App Store could beryllium providing worldly support for terrorism.

The ICEBlock app is intended to beryllium utilized to intended to anonymously study sightings of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and spot sightings reported wrong a 5-mile radius. It says it offers a “completely anonymous and secure” level without nan developer storing immoderate accusation that is enabled by Apple’s ecosystem, and reverse engineering by astatine slightest 1 interrogator confirmed it doesn’t stock your data directly.

However, others person criticized its messaging, for illustration nan developers of Android-based GrapheneOS, who said nan developer whitethorn beryllium “misguided astir nan privateness provided by iOS.” Security technologist and journalist Micah Lee called nan app “activism theater,” said galore of Aaron’s claims were false, and noted that a server he operated was moving outdated package pinch known vulnerabilities.

Apple has not yet responded to requests from The Verge for an on-the-record remark astir nan ICEBlock removal.