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Apple Removes ICE Tracking Apps After Pressure by Trump Administration

posted by hubie on Wednesday October 08, @12:31PM   Printer-friendly

mrpg writes:

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/apple-removes-ice-tracking-apps-after-pressure-by-trump-administration-2025-10-03/:

Apple said on Thursday that it had removed ICEBlock and other similar ICE-tracking apps from its App Store after it was contacted by President Donald Trump's administration, in a rare instance of apps being taken down due to a U.S. federal government demand.

Alphabet's Google also removed similar apps on Thursday for policy violations, but the company said it was not approached by the Justice Department before taking the action.

The app alerts users to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their area, which the Justice Department says could increase the risk of assault on U.S. agents.

[...] Apple removed more than 1,700 apps from its App Store in 2024 in response to government demands, but the vast majority — more than 1,300 — came from China, followed by Russia with 171 and South Korea with 79.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday October 08, @02:23PM (3 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Wednesday October 08, @02:23PM (#1419892)

    https://www.theverge.com/news/791533/google-apple-ice-tracking-app-store-red-dot-iceblock [theverge.com]

    And I strongly suspect Google killing side-loading has a lot to do the fascist Trump regime telling them they don't want the ICE tracking app to be installable by other means.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by bussdriver on Wednesday October 08, @03:39PM

    by bussdriver (6876) on Wednesday October 08, @03:39PM (#1419906)

    The big news is google giving in VOLUNTARILY without being asked simply because Apple did since that quickly happened... and is worse in that people are complying out of fear on their own without even needing to be asked.

    It wasn't a huge shocker as the dictator made moves on those months ago and when that failed they moved to this tactic; having worked, expect them to repeat the same moves to block other apps. Also, google likely jumping before even being asked.

    Will we even know? Without formal requests, it'll just be Apple and Google making internal decisions like they always did and people having to figure out the patterns.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by corey on Wednesday October 08, @09:20PM

    by corey (2202) on Wednesday October 08, @09:20PM (#1419970)

    At least Apple are open/honest about the reason for the take downs.

  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 08, @09:34PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 08, @09:34PM (#1419971)

    These are the same amoral companies that branded with rainbow flags to make a buck. They are not going to be moral crusaders for any side - simply not relevant to them.