It’s bad enough the American gestapo, ICE, is smashing down doors, crashing through windows, cuffing unclothed children, arresting citizens based on skin color, accent, job, or even just their location, and terrorizing otherwise peaceful neighborhoods. Now, thanks to the corporations that control our access to our apps, you can’t easily warn your neighbors to hide.
“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so.”
– Pam Bondi, Trump’s Attorney General
Apple and Google caved to the Trump’s regime’s demand that they crack down on free speech on their platforms when it comes to ICE. Both companies, despite their size, wealth, substantial influence in U.S. politics, and being in the only position of actual bargaining power in this country, caved.
Neither Apple nor Google will let you warn your neighbors if ICE is kicking down doors and arresting random non-white people. If these monoliths of tech can’t stand up to the Trump regime, what hope do any of us have? And what’s next for the anti-free speech administration?
ICE Block Blocked
“I am incredibly disappointed by Apple’s actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move.”
– Joshua Aaron, developer of ICEBlock
The DOJ put pressure on companies to pull ICE tracking apps off their app stores. Both Apple and Google seem to want to distance themselves from the notion they capitulated to a fascist administration by stating that they pulled the apps after their own consideration. Apple states that law enforcement did reach out to them, expressing “the safety risks associated with ICEBlock,” which they then removed. Google, however, does not say they received contact from the DOJ. They just decided to obey in advance, it would seem.
Both Apple and Google decided to pull the ICE warning apps down without official decree. However, with the pressure Trump’s administration places on companies, what legal pressure is required? Trump could sue them, force them to settle, or simply remove tariff exemptions they need to do business. Every company knows they have to follow Trump’s wishes or they could lose millions, even billions. Trump doesn’t have to violate the constitutional rights of a company’s employees if he can work outside of the law in other ways. Now it appears as though Apple and Google made their own decisions to revoke the right to warn your neighbors of a dangerous presence, rather than put up a fight against the Trump administration.
“The underlying threat here is if Apple didn’t comply, they’d slap billions in tariffs on Apple products.”
– Alejandra Caraballo, Civil Rights Attorney at Harvard University’s Cyberlaw Clinic on Bluesky
ICEBlock had a moment of increased popularity months ago thanks to a report from CNN. It quickly became one of the top downloaded apps on iOS. The popularity of ICEBlock, and the fact that it was only on iOS, is likely why the Trump administration did not reach out to Apple or Google about Red Dot, a similar app available on both platforms. Despite this, both companies complied with Trump’s wishes without him even needing to make them known.
Pressuring companies to limit the free speech of their users is a direct violation of their first amendment rights. But we’re in a post-rights America. Apple faced a similar issue in 2019 with the Hong Kong protests. There, other apps also made it possible for people to track and avoid police to stay safe amid a crackdown on pro-democracy protests. Apple, looking to appease the Chinese government, took the anti-democracy stance there as well, and pulled the apps in question.
Apple’s Reasoning and ICE Block Creator’s Rebuttal
“Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.”
“ICEBlock is no different from crowd sourcing speed traps, which every notable mapping application, including Apple’s own Maps app, implements as part of its core services. This is protected speech under the first amendment of the United States Constitution.”– Joshua Aaron, developer of ICEBlock
Joshua Aaron is the developer behind ICEBlock. You can find his full statement about Apple’s ban on the ICEBlock website. He makes a few excellent points. First, there’s nothing illegal about telling people the location of law enforcement. Secondly, neither Apple nor Google have any issue with similar apps that reveal the location of police officers who aren’t tasked with harassing Hispanic-looking people. They seem to only rush to the defense of police making racist profiling a key portion of their “law enforcement.” Finally, ICEBlock only shows reported ICE locations in a 5-mile radius. This prevents the very stalking that Apple claims the app is capable of, making it more about alerting people to danger in their immediate vicinity.
“What really worries me is the kind of precedent that this sets” where the government can “basically dictate what kinds of apps people have on their phones.”
– Alejandra Caraballo, Civil Rights Attorney at Harvard University’s Cyberlaw Clinic
Google says they remove apps with a high potential for abuse, but they own Waze and their own maps application will alert drivers to law enforcement and red light cameras. This allows drivers the confidence to drive more aggressively. It also does the same thing Red Dot did: show law enforcement officers on a map. So why is it a problem when it’s ICE and not police? You’ll have to ask the most likely people behind these decisions: the Trump administration. Trump seemingly wants to go after the people he doesn’t think are the right race for America, and Apple and Google are quick to help.
We should have known when Tim Cook presented Trump with a 24k gold plaque.
Melt the Ice: Other Options
“Compliance will only incentivize further government demands.”
– Gautam Hans, Law Professor at Cornell University
For a similar service to ICEBlock and RedDot, users could turn to StopICE.net. This is a webpage, not an app, and therefore can’t be so easily blocked. It also features text alerts. However, their ability to send those text alerts could be stopped by another government agency. The only way to protect your speech is to use a tool made to protect free speech.
There’s another app that you can use to organize protests, resist the regime, and share videos, locations, and stories with privacy you control, encryption you control, and safety. It’s Signal. You can use it for communication, everyday chats, Instagram Story-like features, group communications, and more. You could easily use the video sharing feature to post videos of ICE to your contacts, along with details of where ICE was spotted. This would only alert people within your network, but if everyone’s using something like this, the network can cover an entire city, keeping people more safe from Trump’s masked and armed provocateurs.
Just. Get. Signal.
Replace WhatsApp with it. Replace ICE Block, Red Dot, or whatever else you’re using with it. Make secure chat part of your daily routine. Why anyone continues to use insecure networks for communication during a fascist takeover of their country is beyond me. I don’t think people will realize how serious this is until ICE kicks down their own door, throws their own children on the street in their underwear, zip tied on the ground, and arrests citizens for having slightly more melanated skin than them.
Get Signal. Get a VPN like Proton VPN, established for privacy outside of the United States. Consider using Proton Mail for encrypted email between other Proton Mail users. They also have secure cloud storage options. Just stop making yourself and your community such easy targets.
And when the government moves to ban VPNs, Signal, or encryption in general, be ready to protest as loudly as you can. The fascism history books warned you about is here, and you better be ready to resist. Until then, remember why it’s so important to have apps like these, and why we need to resist.
“They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other. That’s all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where’s the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, ‘f*** them kids.’”
– Eboni Watson, who witnessed ICE’s raid of an apartment building in Chicago