In this photo illustration, the Iceblock application is displayed on an Apple iPhone on October 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty images
The creator of Iceblock, the application used to follow the local observations of ice agents and other authorities of the law application, asked Apple To cancel his decision to delete the application of his online store.
Joshua Aaron, the creator of the free application, also castigated the Trump administration for having pressure on Apple to prohibit the application compared to the fears that it could be used to harm the immigration agents and the application of American customs.
“It’s not about me or block,” said Aaron in an interview on Friday with CNBC.
“These are our fundamental constitutional rights in this country which are deleted by this administration, and the powers in place which capitulate their requests,” he said.
“I am incredibly disappointed with the decision that Apple made,” said Aaron.
“In almost all the interviews I did, I was asked if I was afraid that Apple could cut down the application, and my answer was always to defend Apple and to say, you know, look, when this application was submitted for the first time, it followed a heavy examination process with the legal and superior officials of Apple in examining the applications.”
Aaron, who declared that he consulted a lawyer on the situation, directly asked Apple to allow him to call on his decision Thursday to drop the application, which became available last spring.
He shared a screen of the message he sent to Apple after the company informed him of the decision.
“There is no reprehensible content in the application,” Aaron wrote in this message, which noted the Apple examination process.
“There has been no modification of the content provided or the functionality of the application,” he wrote. “Please immediately cancel this dismissal and put it back on the App Store.”
Aaron, in his interview with CNBC, compared Iceblock to applications like Waze and others which allow drivers to report the observations of agents of the application of laws on public roads so that they can prevent themselves and avoid obtaining speed tickets.
CNBC asked for comments from Apple on Aaron’s remarks.
“We created the App Store to be a safe and reliable place to discover the applications,” Apple said in a statement at NBC News on Thursday.
“Based on the information we have received from security forces on the security risks associated with Iceblock, as we have deleted and similar applications of the App Store,” said the company.
Google Friday, joined Apple By deleting your online store, other applications can be used to anonymously report the observations of ice agents and other authorities.
The Google store had not focused on Iceblock, which exploded in popularity during the summer after the Trump administration officials criticized it.
“Iceblock has never been available on Google Play, but we have deleted similar applications for violating our policies,” Google spokesperson for NBC News told. The spokesman said Google had not been contacted by the Ministry of Justice about his offer of such applications.
The abolition of Block by Apple intervened after the direct pressure of the Attorney General Pam Bondi, and in the midst of the controversy on the aggressive application of the Trump administration of the Immigration Act with glacial agents and other authorities.
The FBI said last week that a shooter whose attack on an ice installation of Dallas had resulted in the death of two detained immigrants and that the injury of a third detainee had recently searched applications to follow the presence of glacial agents.
The shooter, Joshua Jahn, intended to kill ice agents in the attack, who ended with him by firing himself fatally, the authorities said.
Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has a new generation iPhone 17 at an Apple special event at Apple headquarters on September 09, 2025 in Cupertino, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty images
Friday, Bondi, in a statement according to which the Ministry of Justice sent CNBC, said: “We contacted Apple (Thursday) by asking that they withdraw the Iceblock application from their App Store – and Apple did it.”
“Iceblock is designed to endanger ice agents just to do their job, and violence against the police is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed,” said Bondi.
“This Ministry of Justice will continue to do everything possible to protect our brave Federal Agents from the Application of Laws, who risk their lives every day to ensure the safety of the Americans.”
Federal agents confront demonstrators outside the American immigration and customs building on September 28, 2025 in Portland, Oregon.
Mathieu Lewis-Rolland | Getty images
Trump Border Czar Tom Homan, in an interview Thursday evening with Sean Hannity from Fox News, said: “They will investigate these people who have put these applications – because it endangers the police.”
Iceblock has become the best social networking application in the Apple App Store shortly after the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt condemned the application during a briefing of June 30.
CNN on the same day, had published an article on the application which quoted Aaron as saying that he had developed Ice Block after seeing the expulsion efforts of the Trump administration refrain.
“When I saw what was going on in this country, I wanted to do something to fight back,” said Aaron at the time, suggesting that the efforts to apply immigration recalled Nazi Germany.
“We literally watch the story repeat.”
Iceblock has been downloaded more than a million times since its introduction this year, according to data provided to NBC News by the Appfigures Applications Monitoring Company.
The application reached a summit of almost 114,000 downloads in one day on July 1, one day after the CNN article on the application aroused criticism from the Trump administration.
ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons said on June 30, “advertising an application that essentially portrays an objective on the federal back of law enforcement agents is disgusting”.
“My officers and agents are already faced with a 500% increase in assaults, and go to television live to announce an application that allows anyone to focus on their locations, it’s like inviting violence against them with a national megaphone,” said Lyons.
But Aaron, in an interview with the NBC a few days later, described the criticism of the Trump administration of Bloblock “another frightening tactic of the fear of the right”.
He said he had designed the application to help immigrants who are afraid of being expelled.
“I grew up in a Jewish house and being part of the Jewish community,” said Aaron.
“I had the chance to meet survivors of the holocaust and to learn the history of what happened in Nazi Germany, and the parallels that we can lead between what is happening at the moment in our country and the rise of Hitler are undeniable.”
