Why can't it just be a website? Why does everything have to be a fucking "app"?
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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Chrome?
It's probably a security risk like Android, and the vast majority use it.
Also, apps are better at sending notifications (like ICE warnings). IMO this is a pretty decent justification for an 'iOS only' app.
Regarding the Android version:
https://www.iceblock.app/android
TL,DR: "It's difficult, so we'll hide behind privacy excuses rather than helping the largest number of at-risk people."
Seriously, if VPN companies and every other company that handles sensitive data anonymously can do it, so can these developers. When 70% of the worldwide smartphone user base uses Android, an iOS-only app is just not good enough anymore.
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remember when these guys couldn't breathe while wearing a mask during lockdown?
edit: "e"
Breath - rhymes with 'death', and is what comes out of your mouth
Breathe - the action of breathing
Try to remember it this way: when you add the 'e' on the end, you're really breeeething.
i just can't type worth shit on a touch screen
Hey, no judgement here.
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Super skeptical that this is a Honeypot, or they'd just make it a web app.
A honeypot in a walled garden? What has this nation become?
If a person is armed and masked and does not identify itself, it is most likely a terrorist and a threat to the public.
I'm surprised how non of them were gunned down on self defense,
I think they have been. But they're not reporting it to avoid copycats.
There was a large number of police shootings in my state when one guy opened fire on a state trooper. Then we were hearing stories every week.
So I'm supposed to believe groups of people with masks running up to folks and grabbing them haven't been getting retaliation back?
Saw some video clip from "ice" getting beat tf up in a Haitian community. No guns on the civ side, but they were charging and tackling " ice" and not letting any of their people get kidnapped. love to see it.
It probably helps that they are targeting decent, normal working immigrants, who are unlikely to be armed.
If they were actually going after armed gang members, they probably would be getting shot. But as we can tell by the fact they are hiding their faces, they are chicken shit losers cosplaying as tough guys targeting defenseless people because it's easier.
Crime statistics plainly show that the immigrant community is objectively one of the least likely groups to commit any crime, let alone violent crimes.
The vast majority of immigrants fear any interaction with police that could jeopardize their path to citizenship, even before trump took office and made everything way worse. These people just want to work and go home to their families. They’re unfortunately a perfect target for fascists like Trump because they are under represented, decent people who aren’t likely to fight back at first. Remember that fascism requires a nebulous “enemy” to rally people towards. You need a group that is simultaneously “evil” and capable of great harm to the government and people, but also easily handled by “security” measures. This allows the dictator to convince the public that all these sweeping powers that are being demanded are for their own safety. And unfortunately the vast majority of people just believe the first thing they hear, and we end up in this situation.
I'm just waiting for a trial where a jury has to decide if shooting at a gang of masked unidentified men in unmarked vehicles kidnapping you or your loves ones counts as self defense.
and regardless of the verdict the supreme court will uphold the right of the state to let unidentified gangs kidnap people off the streets.
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Without open source, it could be a honey pot.
I did check to see what permissions and data it wants access to. None. That seems like a good sign.
A nefarious app might also want permissions to see all your contacts.
Edit to clarify: The app install page says only "Data Not Collected". I would presume they would list IP and/or location if that were amongst the data collected as I have seen other apps do, but I am certainly no expert. The dev is All U Chart, Inc.
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TechCrunch did a traffic analysis: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/iceblock-an-app-for-anonymously-reporting-ice-sightings-goes-viral-overnight-after-bondi-criticism/
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Good stuff, but IOS only at the moment.
Edit to include link: https://www.iceblock.app/
Only for iOS... Oof.
At this point my understanding from other sources is that they can't distribute via the android App Store in a way that uses location tracking and notifications but is still anonymous where they can with iOS because location services is device side only.
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Why not just release it as a self install not connected to an appstore?
Not disagreeing. The issues that come with it:
1 - Not many people will install it because you have to disable default security features. Android gives a huge "Your device is insecure" scary message.
2 - Then you'll get the people who will use this for malicious reasons. Even the app store gets copycats that do nothing but steal information.
If the goal is to get this in the hands of as many people as possible to fight I.C.E. should it not be in as many forms as possible?
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Nice masks. Must feel like they're doing something wrong.
I love how, even when they're using them to hide their face, half of them still don't know how to use a mask and put it under their nose
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Would it be possible to create a webapp version of this? With ICE and CBP freely able to search phones now, I am worried about retaliation if they find this app on the phone.
Yes, it’s not hard for a full stack developer to make. Probably a thousand people already in the fediverse can, including me.
But it cannot be hosted on USA controlled servers, and the developers need to find a way to be anonymous to USA offices
Edit: also some other issues. Cannot put it as an onion service because most people in the USA do not use tor. This means regular domain.
- register domain where cannot be seized
- server must be load balanced or using something like kubernetes
- heavy traffic costs money , how to pay bills without crossing USA banking system? And cannot expose payers or contributors
- where to host?
many people can build it, but most of us have no clue to the obstacles
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What a good country we live in when this app is the #1 app in the Social Networking category.
I don't know. An app that only people with direct interest in this matter would use regularly, seems like a pretty convenient way to mark people of interest, no?
Not even in a sci-fk distopían way. Imaginet: TSE sees the app on your screen as you're powering it down in line? BOOM baby, alligator town.
No?
As much as I trash DeCeNtrAlIZaTiOn, maybe THIS is when you actually need DeCeNtrAlIZaTiOn, to protect all participants
There needs to be an Icebook. A Facebook for tracking them with the express purpose of naming, shaming, and black listing.
"If it's a legitimate disappearing, the public has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
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