The Department of Justice pressured Facebook to take down a group where users shared sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago, Attorney General Pam Bondi has said. The move is part of a broader campaign by Donald Trump's administration against tech companies over anti-ICE content, as federal law enforcement intensifies operations in Democratic-led cities to support mass deportations.
Facebook's compliance comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously pledged the platform would not compromise its content standards under pressure from any administration. Last year, Zuckerberg expressed regret over cooperating with Joe Biden's requests to moderate COVID-19 misinformation, stating that platforms must resist government interference. Critics have highlighted the apparent contradiction, noting that the company now appears to have bowed to Trump's demands.
The group, called 'ICE Sighting-Chicagoland,' allowed members to alert others to the presence of federal agents. Bondi claimed such posts amounted to doxxing that put officers at risk. However, Ari Cohn of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression argued that discussing ICE locations is protected by the First Amendment, warning that platforms must reject unlawful government pressure.
Meta told The Independent that the group violated policies against coordinated harm, specifically prohibiting the outing of undercover law enforcement personnel. It remains unclear whether any group reporting ICE sightings can exist under these rules. Meanwhile, Apple and Google also blocked the app ICEBlock, which crowdsourced agent locations and had been downloaded over a million times, after Trump's administration demanded its removal.
