ICEBlock app sues Trump administration for censorship and 'unlawful threats' [View all]
Source: NPR
December 8, 2025 10:00 AM ET
The developer of ICEBlock, an iPhone app that anonymously tracks the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, has sued the Trump administration for free speech violations after Apple removed the service from its app store under demands from the White House.
The suit, filed on Monday in federal court in Washington, asks a judge to declare that the administration violated the First Amendment when it threatened to criminally prosecute the app's developer and pressured Apple to make the app unavailable for download, which the tech company did in October.
Following Apple ejecting ICEBlock, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that "we reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so." Lawyer Noam Biale, who filed the suit against the administration, said Bondi's remarks show the government illegally pressuring a private company to suppress free speech.
"We view that as an admission that she engaged in coercion in her official role as a government official to get Apple to remove this app," Biale said in an interview with NPR. The Justice Department did not return a request for comment, but Trump administration officials have said the app puts the lives of ICE agents in danger.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/08/nx-s1-5631826/iceblock-app-lawsuit-trump-bondi
Link to SUIT (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26360437-iceblock-complaint-as-filed/
Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26360437/iceblock-complaint-as-filed.pdf
= new reply since forum marked as read