Overview
- Committee leaders sent letters Friday seeking details on what the companies are doing to remove or restrict apps that track federal agents and requesting briefings by Dec. 12.
- The letters single out ICEBlock, which lawmakers say was used to follow ICE agents before a fatal September shooting in Dallas that the FBI is investigating as targeted violence, and note the app was taken down after Department of Justice intervention.
- The inquiry focuses on tools that allow anonymous reporting and the dissemination of locations and identities of DHS personnel, including ICE and CBP officers.
- The Justice Department previously asked Apple and Google to withdraw several tracking apps; Apple removed ICEBlock and similar tools, while Google says ICEBlock was never on Play Store and that it removed comparable apps for policy violations.
- The action follows a Dec. 3 hearing on rising threats to law enforcement and comes in the context of other 2025 attacks on border and ICE facilities highlighted by the committee.