Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses(www.404media.co)
141 pointsby raw_anon_11114 days ago9 comments
  • nebula88044 days ago
    I think with the case of Iceblock the developer talked about how the app is super simple by design so that it can be used by 80 year old grandmas. I believe thats part of the reason it wasn't a PWA or something of that nature (among other reasons)

    In the case of this application, the circle of users may shift more towards technically savvy.

    If we assume this to be true, I could see how it may make sense to provide the application as a sideloadable APK or as open source so that it can be compiled and installed using TestFlight. Its unfortunate that we've reached the point that users can't even run software on their own computing devices.

    I wonder if things continue to get bad will we start to see a greater number of people refraining from installing updates to their devices just because prior versions allow more things like jailbreaks. Apple is burning their reputation with these moves so it may happen.

    • OGEnthusiast4 days ago
      > Apple is burning their reputation with these moves so it may happen.

      I highly doubt there will be any noticeable backlash against Apple for removing ICEBlock, sans negative online commentary (which to be fair isn't exactly zero, but doesn't have enough noticeable effect by itself).

      • nebula88044 days ago
        >I highly doubt there will be any noticeable backlash against Apple for removing ICEBlock, sans negative online commentary (which to be fair isn't exactly zero, but doesn't have enough noticeable effect by itself).

        No not just IceBlock but overall increasing the blocking of users from running the software that they want to run.

        In the past we've just had niche applications blocked (emulators, some porn applications and apps maybe hackers would use).

        Everything else was fair game to be in the app store. Now that semi-mainstream applications are getting banned, it encourages more people to find ways to get the software they want to run.

      • lenkite4 days ago
        Its not ICEBlock specifically, but that a precedent has been now been fully set against the First Amendment, where the government can lean on monopolies and the monopoly will comply to destroy rights.
  • lunias3 days ago
    Why are we not avoiding apps and app stores altogether? I understand the desire to tap the captive audience, but we're teaching people that the only software worth running is found in the app store and runs on your phone. Make a web version, make a desktop version, make it work in whichever way affords you and your users the most control over the software. Stop asking Apple for permission and stop getting upset when they deny you.
    • taraindara3 days ago
      People must choose to avoid it. I’m currently on this path. I prefer to use web versions of apps I need access too. If there is no web version, it’s most likely a service I don’t need anyway. My phone is slowly turning back into just a phone with a web browser.
      • pabs32 days ago
        There are more ethical sources of apps, like F-Droid, but it sounds Google's changes to Android will shut that down for most people, but there will be other Android variants like GrapheneOS where F-Droid will still be usable.
  • guywithahat3 days ago
    I'm not sure this article would say it but I wonder if it was, at least in part, banned because it's "stealing" content from other apps? It seems like their could be a privacy or usage policy violation in there.

    That said, any app who's end goal is to doxx federal agents for doing their job is probably not going to last long on the app store.

    • foxyv3 days ago
      > That said, any app who's end goal is to doxx federal agents for doing their job is probably not going to last long on the app store.

      So what you are saying is that federal police should be anonymous? Like some sort of, secret type of police?

  • garyfirestorm4 days ago
    i guess this one trick can help us ban facebook and instagram :)
    • ratelimitsteve4 days ago
      I love when coders run into fascists because we tend to think that deep knowledge of the rules and mechanisms will help us here the way it does everywhere else, but we're in a sphere where every rule is mutable by anyone who is capable of organizing enough violence.
    • 01HNNWZ0MV43FF4 days ago
      Facebook won't let me make an account, so those videos are already gone from FB from my perspective
  • ChrisArchitect4 days ago
    Related:

    Apple defined ICE as a "protected class" in blocking anti-ICE apps

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45520407

  • metalman3 days ago
    apple sorbet
  • Dig1t4 days ago
    If you want to archive videos isn’t YouTube (or Vimeo or Rumble) the best place to do that? What’s the point of a dedicated app?
    • 01HNNWZ0MV43FF4 days ago
      Allowing preferences or downloaded videos to be stored in local storage.

      Downloading from YouTube is hard, Google keeps trying to kill yt-dlp. You can download manually from your own site using a web browser, but the app wrapper would make it easier to search by metadata ("Find ICE videos from my town") and to make sure you don't accidentally download the same thing twice.

      Plus YouTube might take those down for ToS violations sooner or later.

      Anyway it doesn't matter - We should have the right to have apps like this and make them available to the general public. If you can't get it from the App Store, and you can't install an apk on Android, and you can't install an alternate store trivially, then it's as good as dead.

    • hackable_sand4 days ago
      Resilience. Archive the videos on all the platforms. Seed the torrents.
  • valleyer4 days ago
    Tim Cook is a Trump supporter.
    • yieldcrv4 days ago
      They want something from the government that is at the government's discretion, such as semiconductor access, data facilities, subsidies, clearances, inclusion in circular partnerships

      that's why they are not challenging this

    • polski-g3 days ago
      Tim Cook doesn't want the legal liability when this app is named in a civil suit regarding an assassination. It simply isn't worth it.

      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/24/dallas-ice-s...

      https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/defendants-in-prairieland-...

    • ratelimitsteve4 days ago
      I don't think Tim Apple is anything but a Tim Apple supporter at the end of the day, it's just that this administration has shown that will abuse the civil litigation system to tie up your time and money endlessly without ever actually reaching a verdict until you finally just give up and pay Trump to go away...ahem, make a donation to the presidential library fund
      • raw_anon_11114 days ago
        I think Apple has enough money to fight civil actions if Cook had a spine.
      • watwut4 days ago
        One has to love it when the most powerful and riches members of society are suddenly casted as if they were the weakest of the poor.

        Tim Cook and the rest of the billionaire class do exactly what they want to do politically.

      • Cornbilly4 days ago
        I don't think it's even litigation they're worried about. It's the tariff power that the cowardly GOP-controlled Congress has given up to Trump to use as a cudgel.
      • lovich4 days ago
        A reluctant supporter is still a supporter at the end of the day
        • ratelimitsteve4 days ago
          but an enthusiastic supporter can be counted on to be a supporter tomorrow. he'll cow to whomever it is in his best interest to cow to, just like how Zucc banned Trump then paid him or how WaPo went from liberal leaning to only publishing pro-free market editorials as a matter of policy
          • GuinansEyebrows4 days ago
            sure, but there is damage being done today by people who support trump today, enthusiastically or not.
            • ratelimitsteve3 days ago
              no one is arguing that. this isn't about whether tim apple is a good guy, it's about how we get him to stop hurting us and recognizing his motivations as opposed to, say, peter thiel who is all-in trump-plenary-dominionist-authoritarian under all circumstances and can't be bargained with.
      • valleyer4 days ago
        Except he did that, and Trump continues to ask for more. And Cook keeps volunteering it.

        Why so many people fail to infer the obvious answer here -- that Cook is a Trump-supporting Republican -- boggles my mind.

        And not that it really matters, but I say this as a longtime Apple user and employee.

        • Marsymars4 days ago
          Even if Tim Cook didn't vote for Trump, his actions are currently supporting Trump.
      • aggregator-ios4 days ago
        Apple's board would quickly replace any CEO that put the fiscal future of the company into question. Apple is still a tech darling in terms of stock performance and Cook has a fiduciary duty to make sure Apple doesn't flounder. Cook did what he had to do and he's forever going to be remembered as the bad guy for doing it. Whether he actually is or isn't a Trump supporter, we won't know. We have to wait for a tell all book from Cook. My guess is that he will remember this time as the darkest in history and regret it. That is fortunately or unfortunately the immense responsibility that falls on a leader.
        • BrenBarn4 days ago
          Then they're also cowards, evil, or both.
        • rkomorn3 days ago
          > My guess is that he will remember this time as the darkest in history and regret it. That is fortunately or unfortunately the immense responsibility that falls on a leader.

          "It was the darkest time in history but I did the right thing by maximizing shareholder value."

        • pjmlp3 days ago
          He could have chosen to leave, there is always an option.
        • ratelimitsteve3 days ago
          >Whether he actually is or isn't a Trump supporter, we won't know.

          We don't know what goes on in his little secret heart between him and Jesus but in the consensus reality that we all share he's a Trump supporter because when Trump wants to do something Tim Apple helps. That's what it means to support something. I think somehow we got that definition confused with whether Trump supporters feel good about the fact that they're Trump supporters as though saying "Yeah I did that but I didn't like doing it because it's not who I feel like I am" matters at all to the victims.

        • tastyface3 days ago
          Horseshit. Apple could have added a backdoor for the FBI back in 2016 with the exact same reasoning, but didn't, and told disagreeing shareholders to basically fuck off.
    • beefnugs3 days ago
      "Just following orders" "Just participating in corruption" "Just watching out for the children"
    • nocoiner4 days ago
      [flagged]
      • -_-_-_-_-_-4 days ago
        What do you call the guy who abhors the tenets of national socialism but joins the Nazi party solely for the opportunity to sabotage the movement from within? Are they also a Nazi?

        Would you consider all members of group X to be represented by X?

        • nocoiner4 days ago
          That’s an interesting question. I’m not sure I’ve ever thought about it, but definitionally, I think I’d have to say they’re a Nazi. Especially if they’re, like, presenting golden trophies to curry favor with higher-ups in the organization.

          The obvious counterexample is a deep undercover cop - are they a member of the mafia or a biker gang? I’d say no since they’re operating under the color of law, but it’s a pretty analogous situation.

          This leaves aside the question of partisans, members of the resistance or just surly shop stewards enforcing union work rules to the letter were more effective Nazi opponents than a guy who aimed to take the organization down from the inside. I have my suspicious.

          • adfm4 days ago
            How about IBM? They supplied nazis the punch cards they needed to process the data they collected to round up jews and other marginalized groups and put them into concentration camps through a subsidiary and refuse to this day to be transparent about it. Are they Nazis?

            The number tattooed on every concentration camp prisoner was an IBM number.

            https://teachingsocialstudies.org/2024/02/19/ibm-and-auschwi...

            • nocoiner4 days ago
              The German IBM subsidiary was, in my book, a collaborator for sure and morally culpable. I don’t have a view on whether a private enterprise can be a Nazi.
        • noduerme4 days ago
          "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

          - Kurt Vonnegut, "Mother Night".

          Good book that is a direct answer to your question.