Ice tracking app creators plan legal action after Apple’s removal

Google and Apple succumbed to federal pressure and dragged two popular apps, Ice Block and Red Dot. This led users to crowdsource reports of US immigration and customs enforcement activities, citing officer safety after a fatal sniper attack at the Ice Field office in Texas.

On Thursday, Google and Apple both deleted the Red Dot app. Apple also pulled out an iOS-specific ice block app after the US Department of Justice officially requested its removal under Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi said in a statement Fox News The app “is designed to put ice agents at risk just to do their job,” he vowed to protect federal law enforcement officials.

Joshua Aaron, creator of Iceblock, said Apple’s removal blinded him.

“The app was thoroughly reviewed for three weeks by Apple law and senior officials prior to approval,” he said. Decryption. “This was all the time fine. So for them to do it now, so I’m the reason why I say I’m so disappointed.”

Aaron, a software developer and lead singer of rock band Stealing Heather, released Ice Block in April. In July, ice blocks became a virus after being called out by Bondi as ice operations increased across the US.

Aaron said Apple has not reached out to him or given him the opportunity to appeal the decision.

“Although Apple hasn’t called me, we’ve been number one in the app store for a few weeks and we had 1.14 million users who relied on this every day,” he said. “They gave me a letter saying they received information from law enforcement that your app was targeting or causing harm to law enforcement officials.”

Aaron compared ice blocks to mainstream navigation tools such as Apple Maps, Google Maps, and Waze.

“It’s ridiculous to say that somehow ice blocks do something different than that,” he said.

Federal government pressure will be strengthened

The Apple removal came after Bondi’s DOJ officially asked to pull the app, citing the safety of its executives.

“We created an app store to make it a safe and reliable place to discover apps. Based on information we received from law enforcement regarding safety risks associated with ice blocks, we removed similar apps from the App Store,” Apple said. Fox News.

Google removes the emotion from the red dots, 404 Media That ice agent is a “vulnerable group.”

“Iceblock was not available on Google Play, but we removed a similar app due to a violation of our policy,” a Google spokesperson said. Decryption. A spokesman who said the federal government had not reached out to the search giant said the Red Dot app was removed due to rules regarding user-generated content that it said was “high risk of abuse.”

On September 24th, one detainee was killed and two others were injured in a sniper attack at a Dallas ice facility. Authorities said the suspect was aiming to become an ice officer and had searched his phone for a tracking app that included ice blocks before firing.

Aaron called the takedown a “first amendment violation” and said he was going to fight in the media in court.

“This is not an app that has been removed from the app store. It’s a tech company that removes what is clearly a fixed-protected app,” he said. “There’s nothing illegal about developing it. There’s nothing illegal about using it. They’re now deciding what’s available and what’s not available on the device you own.”

He also refused to describe Google’s ICE agents as a “vulnerable group.”

“They gave the country $170 billion to create their own paramilitary forces,” he said. “To say they’re at risk is hilarious at best.”

Apple did not respond immediately to requests for comment Decryption.