The creator of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) monitoring application, ICEBlock, Joshua Aaron, has expressed his disappointment at Apple’s decision to remove his platform from its store. Apple and Google both bowed to federal pressures, removing the application and another, Red Dot, from their stores.
The applications allow users to crowdsource reports of United States ICE activity, with the platforms citing personnel safety after a deadly sniper attack at a field office in Texas. Google and Apple initially removed the Red Dot app from their store before Apple removed the iOS-based ICEBlock app after demands from the United States Department of Justice under Attorney Pam Bondi.
In a statement to Fox News, Bondi claimed that the app was designed to put federal agents at risk for doing their jobs. The DOJ statement also vowed to protect federal law enforcement agents.
ICE tracking app developer disappointed with Apple’s decision
In a recent statement, the creator, Joshua Aaron, mentioned that Apple’s decision to remove his application from their store blindsided him. “The app was thoroughly vetted for three weeks by Apple’s legal and senior officials before approval,” he said. “It’s been fine all this time. For them to do it now, that’s why I say I’m so disappointed.”
Aaron, a software developer who also doubles as a lead singer for the rock band Stealing Heather, released the application back in April. In July, after ICE operations ticked up across the United States, the application went viral after Bondi called out the activities it was being used for. She claimed that they were using it to signal to criminals where federal officers are, a movement that helps illegals evade capture.
However, Aaron claimed that Apple has yet to reach out to him or give him a chance to appeal the decision. “Apple has not called me, even though we were number one in the App Store for weeks and had 1.14 million users that counted on this every single minute of their day,” he said. “They just gave me a letter that said we received information from law enforcement that your app is targeting or harming law enforcement officials.”
Aaron plans to fight the removal
Aaron compared his application to mainstream navigation applications like Apple Maps, Google Maps, and Waze. “To somehow say that ICEBlock is doing anything different than that is ridiculous,” he said. The removal of the application came after Bondi and the DOJ formally asked for the application to be removed, citing officer safety.
Meanwhile, Apple has released a statement to Fox News, in which it spoke about the removal. “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,” Apple told Fox News.
Google also echoed the same sentiment with its decision to remove Red Dot, noting to the media that the agents are a “vulnerable group.”
“ICEBlock was never available on Google Play, but we removed similar apps for violations of our policies,” a Google spokesperson said. The spokesperson claimed that the federal government did not reach out in respect to the app, noting that Red Dot was removed due to the high risk of abuse and rules surrounding user-generated content.
Meanwhile, Aaron has claimed that the removal is a First Amendment violation, and he prepares to fight it in court and in the media. “This is not some app taken down from the App Store; this is a tech company removing something that is clearly a First Amendment-protected app,” he said. “There’s nothing illegal about developing it. There’s nothing illegal about using it. They are now deciding what you can and cannot use on a device that you own.”
