SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bussdriver on Wednesday October 08, @03:39PM
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.