Apple has removed Eyes Up, an app that collects and archives videos of Immigration Customs and Enforcement arrests, 404 Media reports. The app’s removal follows similar action taken against ICEBlock last week, an app that tracks ICE activity in an attempt to offer real-time alerts of when and where arrests are happening. Unlike ICEBlock, though, Eyes Up’s main purpose is to serve as an archive, not a tool for eluding government agents.
The app, which is still available via the web and the Google Play Store, archives videos of ICE arrests from a variety of different sources, and plots them on an interactive map. Users can submit their own videos for inclusion, and tap or click on individual map pins to view videos and download them for later use. “Our goal is government accountability, we aren’t even doing real-time tracking,” an Eyes Up administrator told 404 Media. Ultimately, saved videos could prove useful in court, especially in response to possible ICE misconduct.
Apple says it removed Eyes Up because it violated the company’s policy around “objectionable content,” according to the report, and because it received information from law enforcement that the app is used “to provide location information about law enforcement officers that can be used to harm such officers individually or as a group.”
Engadget has contacted Apple for more information on Eyes Up’s removal from the App Store. We’ll update this article if we hear back.
Apple reportedly received similar information to spur the removal of ICEBlock from the App Store, including a direct request from Attorney General Pam Bondi, Fox Business reports. The fact that Eyes Up was also removed suggests that Apple is casting a wider net than just banning apps that help pinpoint the location of ICE activity.
Google has been removing similar apps on the Play Store, too. The company pulled an app called Red Dot that also plotted ICE activity on a map, one of several apps that were removed because they shared the location of a “vulnerable group.”
