A new iPhone app called ICEBlock lets users track and report on the activities of ICE agents and broadcast them, completely anonymously and in real time, to users of the app located within 5 miles of the activity. The app’s existence was first reported on June 30 by CNN. After masked ICE agents started snatching people from workplaces and public areas around L.A., like at a Home Depot, in L.A.’s fashion district and at restaurants, striking fear into communities in southern California, the app picked up tens of thousands of new users.
The app’s description says,
“ICEBlock is an innovative, completely anonymous crowdsourced platform that allows users to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity with just two taps on their phone. 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.
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. Available exclusively for iOS devices, ICEBlock empowers communities to stay informed about ICE presence within a 5-mile radius while maintaining their anonymity through real-time updates and automatic deletion of sightings after four hours.”
IceBlock’s developer, Joshua Aaron, says he created the app to do something to help communities after seeing the ICE raids going on in the country under Trump. Aaron, who is Jewish, told TIME Magazine that he had had the opportunity to speak with Holocaust survivors and learn about the history of Nazi Germany, and noticed the current political climate is increasingly displaying signs of authoritarianism and fascism. Aaron says it’s like “watching history repeat itself.” He says “The app is 100% anonymous and free for anybody who wants to use it. We don’t collect user data. We don’t even capture user data.” The app is only available on iPhones because it “requires a device ID in order to send push notifications, which requires a user account and a password.” Aaron adds that the app is to inform people so they can avoid confrontations with ICE, and is not intended to obstruct ICE.
Despite this, Attorney General Pam Bondi decried the app. She told Fox News that she is “looking at” the app developer and issued a public warning to him, saying “he better watch out.”
You can download the ICEBlock app here.
It was quick & easy to sign up. Thanks!
“The app is only available on iPhones because it “requires a device ID in order to send push notifications, which requires a user account and a password.”
I’m confused by this sentence. I think the app is only on iOS because is does NOT require a user name, password, or device ID – but I could be wrong.
Those were the words of the app’s developer.
I hate facstists, too.
🙂
I know that you claim to be a friend of “brown people”.
Did you know that “Latinos make up 30 percent of ICE agents and nearly 50 percent of Border Patrol agents” ?
So the question is…are they just naturally fascists or did they become fascist?
Something to think about.
Dear bad hat,
before we go any further, I’d like to know your thoughts on the additional 3 trillion dollars in debt Trump’s big bill is going to add. Actually, I have a pretty good idea you don’t care, I just want to see you wriggle out of it. All right buddy. Let’s see some gymnastics!
What a cool app!
The developer, who is also Antifa adjacent said this:
“The app is to inform, not obstruct. This is to have people avoid having that confrontation in the first place.”
…which is absolute bullsh*t.
This will be used by otherwise unemployed “activists” to gather their minions to attempt to make ICE’s job impossible. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt or killed and then there will be arrests and releases and wailing about the fascist Trump administration.
Saddle up.
WTF is “Antifa adjacent”? Is that like when you tell people that you don’t trust someone, because they live next to a Black family?
He has an antifa link on his website. I wouldn’t accuse him of something I couldn’t corroborate so I said adjacent.
I’ve been scouting around the interwebs this morning and one right wing podcaster is suggesting that people get the app and start reporting a lot of erroneous ICE sightings with the aim of making the app useless.
Here are my questions for people who speak in accusatory terms about so-called “antifa.” Are you aware that “antifa” means anti-fascist, or opposed to fascism? If yes, then 2) If you decry the views of those who are opposed to fascism, then the only remaining possibilities are that you are either 1) pro-fascist or 2) neutral about fascism. So, badhat, which of those remaining possibilities describe your views?
Yes I am aware that antifa is supposed to mean antifascist. I don’t know the history of the group so I’ll have to do some research about who founded it.
What I do know is that they took the opportunity during the George Floyd “protests ” to bring the city of Portland, Oregon to its knees and they’re still at it. If I could post links on your site, I could show you several ongoing “actions” that are terrorizing the locals. (in this case people, who happen to be black, because they live near an ICE facility)
I might be able to grant you that these are just mindless, aimless kids who think it’s cool to sport Antifa paraphernalia, but I’m pretty certian that Antifa isn’t serious about its purported mission because they seem to be delighted by the chaos they are causing and to my knowledge have never denounced it.
I call *that* a type of fascism because they believe in disruption and force and that they are the final arbiters of what is right.
As you’ve so clearly proven numerous times, you’re completely unfamiliar with the concept that people are willing to take the risk of being hurt, or even killed, to protect others.
Making it harder for Trump’s BlobbenTroopers to round up immigrants and their children (you know, workers, not the actual “dangerous hombres”…that could get a Rambo wannabe hurt) is not a bad thing.
You’re just too old to learn.
Good! Facstists (like other vermin) hate it when you shine a light on them.