Facebook removes ICE-tracking page after US government ‘outreach’

Meta took down a Facebook page dedicated to tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in Chicago after the Justice Department became involved.

Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on Tuesday Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed that the group, which he did not identify, “was removed for violating our policies against coordinated harm.” Its removal follows Apple and Google blocking ICE tracking apps, also following government requests.

The DOJ declined to comment beyond Bondi’s post, and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether any specific credible threats were made against ICE agents on the page. The DOJ appears to have taken action after Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer who has led several campaigns against federal employees she deems disloyal to Trump, posted a post on a Facebook group called “ICE Sighting-Chicagoland” that she said “provides location updates on ICE raids and ICE agent locations in the Chicago area.” Although neither the DOJ nor Meta confirmed the name of the deleted group, Loomer claimed that a DOJ source told him that the agency saw his post and contacted Meta about the pages.

As President Donald Trump has stepped up immigration enforcement across the country, including through more aggressive tactics like workplace raids, several tools and community groups have emerged to alert people to the presence of ICE in their area. The ICEBlock app used to anonymously report ICE sightings rose to the top of Apple’s App Store this summer before also being removed by Apple after the DOJ contacted it, with Bondi saying it was “designed to put ICE agents in danger simply for doing their job.” Joshua Aaron, developer of ICEBlock, said Fox News Digital it was “patently false” that the app “was used to harm law enforcement.”

As private sector companies, Apple and Meta can generally legally remove groups or apps as they see fit. But Bondi’s statement raises questions about whether the government engaged in illegal acts or pressured private actors to shut down all legal speech. It’s unclear exactly what the DOJ told the platforms that prompted them to act, or whether Meta could have removed the page even without government intervention. But the administration has recently suggested that a wide range of speech could constitute concrete support for domestic terrorism and has pledged to crack down on it.

The incident is particularly notable since President Donald Trump and other Republicans have repeatedly called the Biden administration’s outreach to tech platforms regarding covid and voting misinformation censorship, lambasting the government’s role in flagging posts they say are harmful to voter engagement or public health. Conservative attorneys general sued the administration in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which found no “concrete connection” between platform removal decisions and the government’s communication with tech executives.

There is also little direct evidence that ICE tracking tools led to violence. The administration stepped up pressure after claiming that a shooter at a Dallas field office in September used tracking apps, but it’s unclear what role, if any, he played in the attack (which resulted in the deaths of two detainees and no ICE agents). ICE agents have suffered more assaults as their presence in American communities has grown, but to a much lesser degree than the government claims, according to a recent report. National Public Radio report found.