Joshua Aaron, developer of the ICEBlock app, is expected to file a lawsuit in the federal court against Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Todd Lyons, and Tom Homan in their official capacities. Via Alison Gill's The Breakdown:
The lawsuit alleges that government officials - acting in their official capacity - pressured Apple into removing the ICEBlock app from the Apple App Store in violation of Mr. Aaron’s 1st Amendment protected expression. The lawsuit asks the court to permanently enjoin the government from coercing, threatening, or demanding Apple or other app distribution services to stop distribution of the ICEBlock App, among other things.
The sequence of events leading up to Apple’s removal of the ICEBlock App, coupled with the fact that Pam Bondi actually admitted she asked Apple to remove ICEBlock, paint a clear picture of federal government interference in protected speech.
The ICEBlock App launched in April 2025 after it was rigorously reviewed and approved by Apple as being compliant with their terms of service. Then in June, after CNN published a feature on ICEBlock and interviewed Mr. Aaron, administration officials embarked on a prolonged effort to chill Mr. Aron’s speech and coerce Apple into removing the App from the App Store.
This is not unlike the FCC Chair Lee Zeldin coercing ABC affiliates to pull Jimmy Kimmel off the air for disfavored speech - the very behavior Trump allies railed against when they accused the Biden administration of coercing Twitter to remove president Trump’s violence-inciting rhetoric from their platform. The difference, however, is that Trump’s rhetoric actually did violate Twitter’s rules, whereas the ICEBlock App did and does NOT violate Apple’s terms of service.
https://bsky.app/profile/clancyny.bsky.social/post/3m5x3rjudtk2g
