DOJ may face investigation for pressuring Apple, Google to remove apps for tracking ICE agents
Source: Engadget
Overview
House Judiciary Committee member Jamie Raskin (D‑MD) has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over all communications with Apple and Google regarding the companies’ decisions to remove apps that shared information about sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Several apps that allowed people to share information about where they had seen ICE members were removed from both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store in October. Politico reported that Raskin has contacted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the issue and also questioned the agency’s use of force against protestors as it enforces the immigration policy set by former President Donald Trump.
“The coercion and censorship campaign, which ultimately targets the users of ICE‑monitoring applications, is a clear effort to silence this Administration’s critics and suppress any evidence that would expose the Administration’s lies, including its Orwellian attempts to cover up the murders of Renee and Alex,” Raskin wrote to Bondi.
Raskin refers to Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were fatally shot by ICE agents. In the two separate incidents, claims made by federal leaders about the victims and the circumstances of their deaths were contradicted by eyewitnesses or camera footage, echoing violent interactions and misinformation that occurred during ICE raids in Chicago several months earlier.