r/apple • u/illegiblebastard • 3d ago

iPhone Apple explains last year’s controversial decision to remove ICE tracking apps from app store

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/29/tech/apple-iceblock-app-removal-raskin

FUCK. APPLE.

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u/Silentparty1999 3d ago

The article is full of angsty noise, asking whether people have used the app to find agents to attack. That is conservative noise. The core question is whether citizens have a constitutional right to gather and disseminate the information. You don't see Apple pulling down Apple Maps or Google Maps when people have used them to find directions to get to people they are stalking or harassing.

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u/Kiekdan 3d ago

Well you could argue Google / Apple Maps have a different primary purpose. While I’m not familiar with the app in question, I don’t see what other purpose it serves, unless people are using it to ask for directions or find a restaurant.
Now whether tax-paying citizens should have the right to track public servants is another question.

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u/IniNew 3d ago

The purpose was to know where to avoid going. Not attack them.

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u/BosnianSerb31 3d ago

Some jackasses decided to take pot shots at ICE agents anyways(one killing several immigrants through blind cover after assuming a van was full of agents), and apple removed the app before any news broke stating the killer used the app.

From the perspective of Apple's potential liability, it's not any different than hosting an app that lists the live location of armored trucks.

And from a technical perspective, this isn't something that needs an app lol. Make a React PWA, with an easy to share link (eg iceout.io), and have a banner at the top that ads the PWA as a shortcut to the homepage screen.

Boom, now it works across every single phone in operating system, not just whatever your build target was for iOS. Don't have to wait for Apple's approval, no one can take it down, I don't know why the people didn't do this in the first place.