Apple has removed ICEBlock from the App Store as of Friday, Oct. 3. The app, which uses crowdsourcing to report sightings of ICE agents, reached 1 million users in September. Apple’s removal of the app comes after U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi confirmed her office reached out to the company to remove the app.
IceBlock launched in April 2025 as a crowdsourcing app. It allowed anyone to report ICE sightings anonymously within a 5-mile radius. In July, the app skyrocketed in popularity as protests against the mass arrests and deportation of immigrants soared across the country. It reached the No. 1 spot on the App Store’s most downloaded list and counted over 700,000 users.
However, the app is no longer available on the App Store. The developer confirmed it had been removed on Thursday evening. Those who already downloaded the app should still be able to use it.
“We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to “objectionable content’,” ICEBlock said in a social media post, according to the Associated Press. “The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump Admin. We have responded and we’ll fight this!”
ICEBlock was removed from the App Store after a request from Pam Bondi
Apple said concerns about potential risks tied to the app were raised by law enforcement: “We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps,” the company said in a statement, per the Associated Press. “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.”
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said her office contacted Apple on Thursday, “demanding that they remove ICEBlock from their App Store.” She told the Associated Press that ICEBlock was “designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.”
Since the app soared in popularity, officials have criticized it for being a safety risk for members of law enforcement. Bondi said in July that apps that allow crowdsourcing about the location of law enforcement officers are not allowed.
“We are looking at him and he better watch out because that’s not a protected speech,” Bondi said in reference to ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron in July.
“What they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations, and we’re going to actually go after them and prosecute them,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem added at the time, according to The Independent. “What they’re doing is illegal.”
Advocates for the app disagree and said that tracking ICE activity is a form of free speech. Other crowdsourcing apps, such as Waze or Google Map,s have been used to notify other drivers of police presence for years. Neither of these apps has been targeted so far.
Why was the ICEBlock app launched?
The app was modeled after Waze in order to report ICE sightings. It was launched as social media users started to widely share information regarding sightings of ICE agents across the United States amid mass arrests and deportation efforts.
“In recent years, ICE has faced criticism for alleged civil rights abuses and failures to adhere to constitutional principles and due process, making it crucial for communities to stay informed about its operations,” the app’s website indicates. “Modeled after Waze but for ICE sightings, the app ensures user privacy by storing no personal data, making it impossible to trace reports back to individual users.”
Aaron decided to offer a solution in reaction to what he sees as a repetition of deportation efforts conducted in the 1940s under Nazi Germany.
“When I saw what was happening in this country, I wanted to do something to fight back,” he told CNN. “We’re literally watching history repeat itself.”
“We state this multiple times in the app, and I have reiterated this in every interview I have given. ICEBlock serves to ‘inform not obstruct’ and its goal is to allow people to avoid potentially harmful encounters with ICE,” he added.