Facebook rolls over for Trump’s DOJ to block anti-ICE group in latest Big Tech pressure campaign

The Department of Justice pressed Facebook to remove a group where users alerted members to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The move follows a pressure campaign from Donald Trump’s administration against tech companies over anti-ICE content as federal law enforcement surges into Democratic-led cities to support the president’s mass deportation agenda.

Facebook’s apparent submission to Trump comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged that the platform would not “compromise” its content standards under “pressure from any administration in either direction.”

Last year, Zuckerberg expressed regret that Joe Biden’s administration pushed the platform to better moderate COVID-19 content and potentially politically damaging stories ahead of the 2020 presidential election, which the FBI warned may have been tied to a Russian disinformation operation.

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg wrote to members of Congress last year. “I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”

Republicans ultimately sued the Biden administration over its attempts to reduce COVID misinformation during the pandemic through requests to social media companies to take down false statements about vaccines or the virus. Last year, the Supreme Court determined that those requests did not amount to unlawful coercion.

The Biden administration’s actions at the center of that case triggered a wave of right-wing outrage, alleging a Democratic-led assault of First Amendment rights and illegal interference against privately owned platforms.

“Discussion of where ICE has been spotted operating, and even the identities of agents, is protected by the First Amendment,” according to Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

“If there’s a true threat, you prosecute that,” Cohn said. “But you cannot silence lawful speech, or pressure platforms to, because you’re worried it might be ‘misused.’ … Just like with the Biden administration, platforms must tell the government to buzz off when they try to interfere.”

Members in a Facebook group called “ICE Sighting-Chicagoland” alerted others to federal agents in their neighborhood — what administration officials have falsely conflated with “doxxing,” or revealing identifying information about officers to “target” them.

“The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs,” Bondi wrote Tuesday. “The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.”

A spokesperson for Meta told The Independent that the group — which crowd sourced the locations of ICE agents — violated the platform’s policies against “coordinated harm.”

The platform prohibits users “outing the undercover status of law enforcement, military, or security personnel if the content contains the agent’s name, their face or badge,” or the agent’s law enforcement organization or operation, or “explicit mentions of their undercover status.”

It is unclear what specific rule the group violated, or if any group that allows users to report the locations of ICE against in their neighborhoods can be allowed under Meta’s rules. Meta did not respond to additional questions from The Independent.

This month, Apple and Google blocked users from downloading apps that similarly crowd-sourced ICE sightings, hours after the Trump administration demanded a popular iPhone be removed from the App Store.

ICEBlock, described as “Waze for ICE sightings,” was downloaded more than 1 million times after its launch this year. The app effectively serves as an early-warning system for users, who can drop pins on a map to note the presence of ICE in any given area. Identifying information was not included.

Bondi claimed that the app is “designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.”

In a Senate oversight hearing this month, she said she spoke with Apple to “get the ICEBlock app taken down” because users were “posting where ICE officers lived.”

Apple complied, sending a message to the app’s creator Joshua Aaron that the app was pulled over “objectionable content” following information “provided to Apple by law enforcement.”

“The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump [administration],” according to the app.

Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer appeared to take credit for Facebook’s latest action, claiming that her “source” within the Justice Department contacted the company about removing the group. She demanded Zuckerberg – who has grown close with Trump in his second administration — face “accountability” for his “crimes.”

“He’s just trying to cover his own ass while he continues to work against the Trump admin every single day,” Loomer wrote on X Monday. “It’s further evidence Big Tech is continuing to subvert and undermine President Trump and his agenda.”

The following day, Bondi announced Facebook removed the group Loomer had reported following “DOJ outreach.”