In a significant move on Tuesday, Meta announced the removal of a Facebook group dedicated to sharing intelligence on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Chicago. This action came directly after a formal request from the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Meta took down the group, which she stated was being used to ‘dox and target’ immigration agents in the Chicago area, following direct communication from the Justice Department.
Known as ‘ICE Sighting-Chicagoland,’ the group had amassed over 80,000 members before its removal. A Meta spokesperson, Francis Brennan, confirmed Wednesday that the decision was based on the group’s ‘violating our policies against coordinated harm,’ though no additional specifics were disclosed.
This incident places Meta, the parent company of Instagram and WhatsApp, among several major tech firms responding to government requests regarding content removal. Just last week, both Apple and Google took similar steps, removing applications from their app stores designed to track immigration agents. Among these was ‘ICEBlock,’ a widely used free app that allowed hundreds of thousands of users to anonymously report the real-time locations of ICE agents within a five-mile radius.
Amidst increased ICE raids in various cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon, under President Trump’s administration, local residents have increasingly turned to Facebook groups to disseminate information about agent movements. These communities, often comprising thousands of members, regularly feature dozens of daily posts, frequently including photographs and real-time locations of immigration agents.