Eshu Marneedi

Ashley Oliver, reporting exclusively for Fox Business:

Apple dropped ICEBlock, a widely used tracking tool, from its App Store Thursday after the Department of Justice raised concerns with the big tech giant that the app put law enforcement officers at risk.

DOJ officials, at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, asked Apple to take down ICEBlock, a move that comes as Trump administration officials have claimed the tool, which allows users to anonymously report ICE agents' presence, puts agents in danger and helps shield illegal immigrants.

“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so,” Bondi said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed,” Bondi added. “This Department of Justice will continue making every effort to protect our brave federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe.”

I’ll begin by taking a victory lap I wish I never could. I predicted this would happen almost two months ago on the dot when Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, bribed President Trump with a golden trophy in the Oval Office. Here’s what I had to say about Cook’s antics back then:

Cook has fundamentally lost what it takes to be Apple’s leader, and it’s been that way for at least a while. He’s always prioritized corporate interests over Apple’s true ideals of freedom and democracy. If Trump were in charge when the San Bernardino terrorist attack happened, there’s no doubt that Cook would’ve unlocked the terrorist’s iPhone and handed the data over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If Trump wants ICEBlock or any of these other progressive apps gone from the App Store, there’s no doubt Apple would remove them in a heartbeat if it meant a tariff exemption. For proof of this, look no further than when Apple in 2019 removed an app that Hong Kong protesters used to warn fellow activists about nearby police after Chinese officials pressured Apple. ICEBlock does the same thing in America and is used by activists all over the country — if removing it means business for Cook, it’ll be gone before sunrise.

I have no idea why Apple ultimately decided to remove ICEBlock. Perhaps it’s about tariffs, maybe it’s just worried about getting in hot water with the administration. Either way, it certainly was not a low-level decision, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Cook himself had something to do with it. The question now becomes: Where does it go from here? ICEBlock did only one thing: It allowed users to report sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on a map, where others could be alerted via push notifications if they were near the area of the sighting. It’s not a novel concept; in fact, it was popularized by Waze over a decade ago to alert other drivers of speed traps and traffic cops.

My point is that ICEBlock is (a) not illegal and (b) not unprecedented. It is legal to videotape, report on, and post about police officers in the United States¹. ICE agents are sworn defenders of the law, including the Constitution, which strictly prohibits virtually any overbearing speech regulation by the government. People have been filming cops for years, and it’s almost entirely legal in this country. There is not one thing wrong with ICEBlock, and it is in no way a threat to police officers any more than Instagram Stories or Waze. Why doesn’t Apple take Waze off the App Store next? How about Citizen, which gives residents alerts about possible law enforcement and criminal activity in their area? Why doesn’t Apple remove the Camera app in iOS to prevent anyone from filming and reporting on the police?

I’m not making a slippery slope argument here. I’m making an educated set of predictions. Where does Apple go from here? I correctly predicted two months ago that ICEBlock would be removed eventually, an argument many of my readers discredited for being alarmist. I was correct, not because I’m some genius, but because it’s obvious to anyone with any level of critical thinking that this is the trajectory Apple leadership has decided to go. So here’s my next, full-fledged prediction: Apple will begin accepting more government information requests to view private citizens’ personal data stored in iCloud. Apple already has an agreement with the Chinese government, allowing it to view the data of any Chinese citizen because Apple’s Chinese iCloud servers are hosted in China. What is stopping Bondi from breaking into people’s iCloud accounts next?

My first reaction to that thought train was to turn on Advanced Data Protection, but what if that disappears, too? This, too, is not without precedent: After pressure from the British government earlier this year, Apple removed access to Advanced Data Protection in Britain, a process that is still ongoing. What is stopping the U.S. government from making the same demand? The law? Please, give us a break — there is no law left in this country. Apple doesn’t care about the law if it means enriching itself, and its U.S. users should no longer have any faith in the company to store their personal information securely without government surveillance or interference. This is not a statement I make lightly, and I would absolutely love to be proven wrong. (Apple spokespeople, you know where to find me.) But it is the objective truth — a faithful prediction based on current events.