The US government has crossed yet another red line, pressuring a company into removing an application that provides legitimate information to Americans. The ICEBlock account on Bluesky reports:

We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to “objectionable content”. 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

Forbes and other outlets confirm this. Also, I checked on the App Store and couldn’t find ICEBlock. Apple has said: “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 “safety risk” in question is that people can find out where masked ICE agents are abducting people and get potential victims to safety or organize a protest. Informing the public about government activity is a fundamental right of citizens. The “safety risk” in question is clearly to Apple. They’ve been threatened with something behind the scenes if they didn’t remove the application.

In a way, this is worse than if Trump had issued an executive order banning the application. That could be fought in court. Intimidation behind closed doors is harder to prove. The action calls everything Apple does into suspicion. The company boasts of strong privacy protection, but can we be sure it hasn’t stuck in some backdoors because of a “safety risk” if it doesn’t? The notice mentioned “similar apps” have been removed. I don’t know what they are.

It’s a short step from taking down the application to taking down hosted websites that report on ICE’s human rights violations. There’s no substantial difference between reporting information through an application and reporting it through a newsletter or blog.

I have cancelled my Apple Music subscription and encourage others to take similar actions.

Update: Shortly after ICEBlock went away, Google removed Red Dot, another ICE-spotting app, from the Google Play Store. It called ICE, a gang of heavily armed thugs, a “vulnerable group.” For all their weaponry, these bullies are ashamed to show their faces and tremble in their jackboots when they see a protest. We can only speculate on what Trump threatened Apple and Google with to get them to remove applications that promote free speech in the public interest.