{"id":1345,"date":"2025-10-03T05:57:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/apple-pulls-iceblock-from-the-app-store\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T05:57:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:57:40","slug":"apple-pulls-iceblock-from-the-app-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/apple-pulls-iceblock-from-the-app-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple pulls ICEBlock from the App Store"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Apple has removed the \u201cWaze but for ICE sightings\u201d app ICEBlock<\/a> from its App Store, as reported previously by Business Insider<\/a><\/em>. A post from its developer<\/a> relayed Apple\u2019s App Review message about the ban, saying, \u201cWe just received a message from Apple\u2019s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to \u2018objectionable content.\u2019 The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump Admin. We have responded and we\u2019ll fight this!\u201d<\/p>\n

The ICEBlock app rose to the top of the App Store\u2019s charts this summer<\/a> after being targeted by Trump administration officials, with US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling it an \u201cobstruction of justice,\u201d and Attorney General Pam Bondi claiming it was \u201cnot a protected speech.\u201d <\/p>\n

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We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to \u00ab\u00a0objectionable content\u00a0\u00bb. The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump Admin.We have responded and we’ll fight this! #resist<\/p>\n

\u2014 ICEBlock Official (@iceblock.app)<\/a> 2025-10-02T22:27:09.813Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Today, Bondi took credit for the app\u2019s removal, saying to Fox News Digital<\/em><\/a>, \u201cWe reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store \u2014 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.\u201d ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron is quoted in the same report saying, it counts over 1.1 million users, and that \u201cApple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple made similar claims in 2019 when it removed HKMap<\/a>, an app that allowed Hong Kong protesters to trace the movements of law enforcement, with CEO Tim Cook telling employees<\/a> that \u201cover the past several days we received credible information, from the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau, as well as from users in Hong Kong, that the app was being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle spoke out against \u201cApple\u2019s censorship of apps.\u201d<\/a> A letter<\/a> 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, \u201cCases like these raise real concern about whether Apple and other large US corporate entities will bow to growing Chinese demands rather than lose access to a billion Chinese consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the Trump administration is restricting speech as part of a push against a vaguely defined threat of \u201cantifa.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Elizabeth Lopatto and Sarah Jeong wrote earlier today:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Antifa, as described in the national security presidential memorandum<\/a>\u00a0(NSPM), is both everything and nothing. It is in forums and social media and in-person meetings. It is in educational organizations and nonprofit institutions. It is protests (\u201criots\u201d) not just in\u00a0Portland<\/a>, but in Los Angeles as well, whether against Trump\u2019s immigration policies or, separately, \u201canti-police and \u2018criminal justice\u2019 riots.\u201d It is the doxxing of masked and armed ICE agents. It is the \u201crhetoric\u201d on the bullets alleged to be engraved by Charlie Kirk\u2019s killer \u2014 referring, it seems, to an unused bullet casing with\u00a0a video game button combo on it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So antifa could be a kid in a black mask tossing a brick at a CCTV camera at an ICE facility. Antifa could be the grandma on the sidewalk holding a sign reading \u201cDONALD TRUMP IS A FASCIST.\u201d Antifa is ACAB. Antifa is Fuck ICE. Antifa is No Kings. Antifa might be a reading group, a teach-in, an Instagram solicitation for mutual aid. Antifa could be the\u00a0ICEBlock app<\/a>, and the App Store could be providing material support for terrorism.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The ICEBlock app is intended to be used to intended to anonymously report sightings of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and see sightings reported within a 5-mile radius. It says it offers a \u201ccompletely anonymous and secure\u201d platform without the developer storing any information that is enabled by Apple\u2019s ecosystem, and reverse engineering by at least one researcher confirmed it doesn\u2019t share your data<\/a> directly. <\/p>\n

However, others have criticized its messaging<\/a>, like the developers of Android-based GrapheneOS, who said the developer may be \u201cmisguided about the privacy provided by iOS.\u201d Security engineer and journalist Micah Lee called the app \u201cactivism theater,\u201d<\/a> said many of Aaron\u2019s claims in a speech about the app and its security were false, and noted<\/a> that a server he operated was running outdated software with known vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Apple has not yet responded to requests from The Verge<\/em> for an on-the-record comment about the ICEBlock removal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple has removed the \u201cWaze but for ICE sightings\u201d app ICEBlock from its App Store, as reported previously by Business […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}