Hodges worked at Apple for more than 22 years and spent more than a decade as director of marketing and product management, bringing products like Xcode and Swift to market, according to his LinkedIn profile. “I used to believe that Apple was unequivocally ‘the good guys,’” Hodges writes. “I have passionately advocated that people understand Apple as being on the side of its users above all else. Now I feel like I have to question that.”
Apple removed Iceblock and other ice spot apps last week in response to requests from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who claims that “Iceblock is designed to put ice agents in harm’s way just to do their jobs.” Google followed suit by removing Red Dot and similar apps, although it did not receive a request from the Justice Department.
In his letter, Hodges says Apple’s fight against San Bernardino Shoot Suspect’s iPhone break-in marked a “turning point” for people skeptical of its privacy and security practices. “This act of lawful, principled defiance of government intimidation and jaw-dropping helped convince people that Apple’s actions and the stated ideals were in alignment,” says Hodges.
But Apple’s recent removal of Block Ice from the App Store “squanders the same good faith,” says Hodges, while opposing the company’s key principles that Apple will remain committed to an open society even if it “disagrees” with a country’s laws. “Removal of Block without government evidence providing a lawful basis for such a request or following a legal process to effect its removal represents an erosion of this principled position.”
Alex Horovitz, former senior director of manufacturing systems and infrastructure at Apple, wrote a similar letter calling out the impact of removing Iceblock. “Apple is more than a company; it is a cultural institution built on courage and principle,” Horovitz writes. “Every time he quietly gives in to political pressure, he strengthens the hand of those who would centralize power and weaken the freedoms the company once defended.”
Horovitz and Hodges ask Cook for more information about why Apple removed Block Ice and whether the government’s demands had legal support.
“I hope you recognize how every inch you willingly give to an authoritarian regime adds to their illegitimately derived power,” Hodges writes. “It is up to all of us to demand that the rule of law rather than the whims of a handful of people – even elected ones – govern our collective enterprise.”
The penis contacted Apple with a request for comment but did not immediately hear back.
