Apple Inc. is currently taking flak for its decision to remove two apps from the App Store that tracked the activity of people being arrested by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last week, ICEBlock became the first ICE-related app removed from the App Store after pressure from the Trump administration. The app was used to help anyone who might be in the spotlight of ICE by pinpointing the real-time locations of agents. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the app “put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.” She said the Department of Justice would continue to protect federal law enforcement officers, “who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe.”
“We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps,” Apple said in a statement. “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.”
The company went a step further when it removed a second app, Eyes Up, that archives videos of ICE arrests. The app has no facility to help people avoid arrests. Its supporters believe it could be useful in exposing misconduct.
“Our goal is government accountability; we aren’t even doing real-time tracking,” an Eyes Up administrator told 404 Media, explaining that the app might have gone missing from the App Store due to “how many incriminating videos we have.”
Apple disagrees, stating that Eyes Up falls into the bracket of “objectionable content,” since it provides “location information about law enforcement officers that can be used to harm such officers individually or as a group.”
During Trump’s second term, ICE has dramatically expanded its reach, carrying out more than 65,000 arrests in just the first 100 days. The agency’s renewed push for interior enforcement has ignited protests in cities nationwide, with demonstrations outside ICE facilities growing increasingly volatile in recent weeks.
A former executive and senior manager at Apple, Wiley Hodges, who worked at the company for 22 years, sent a letter to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, decrying what he believes is Apple contradicting its own statements regarding support for human rights. “I hope you recognize how every inch you voluntarily give to an authoritarian regime adds to their illegitimately derived power,” he told Cook.
He also cited a document Apple wrote in 2025, titled, “Our Commitment to Human Rights,” in which the company said it believes “in the critical importance of an open society in which information flows freely, and we’re convinced the best way we can continue to promote openness is to remain engaged, even where we may disagree with a country’s laws.”
That was followed by a second missive, this one from Alex Horovitz, once a senior manager of manufacturing systems and infrastructure at Apple. He called the removal of ICEBlock a “betrayal of the very principles Apple once defined for the industry: user empowerment, privacy, and the defense of civil liberty against coercive power.”
Photo: Flickr
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