{"id":49592,"date":"2025-10-09T13:48:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T17:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=49592"},"modified":"2025-10-09T20:31:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:31:33","slug":"eyes-up-removed-from-the-app-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/09\/eyes-up-removed-from-the-app-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyes Up Removed From the App Store"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph Cox<\/a> (Bluesky<\/a>, Reddit<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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Apple removed an app for preserving TikToks, Instagram reels, news reports, and videos documenting abuses by ICE, 404 Media has learned. The app, called Eyes Up, differs from other banned apps such as ICEBlock which were designed to report sightings of ICE officials in real-time to warn local communities. Eyes Up, meanwhile, was more of an aggregation service pooling together information to preserve evidence in case the material is needed in the future in court.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

“Our goal is government accountability, we aren’t even doing real-time tracking,” the administrator of Eyes Up, who said their name was Mark, told 404 Media. Mark asked 404 Media to only use his first name to protect him from retaliation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

I’ve not seen an official statement from either Apple or the government. Perhaps there was a direct government request\/demand about Eyes Up, but it’s also possible that there was a copyright concern (since the app collected content already uploaded to other platforms) or that Apple just took down everything related to ICE without specifically considering Eyes Up.<\/p>\n\n

Wes Hilliard and Mike Wuerthele<\/a>:<\/p>\n

So, it’s not as if you can switch to another product or service in hopes of escaping these issues or voting with your wallet without going totally off grid. The problem doesn’t lie with the companies — it lies with those in power taking the actions, and making the “requests.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Again<\/a>, I think there’s a double standard here. If the government were requesting private customer data stored on Apple’s servers, you would blame the government (if the request were in fact unreasonable) but also blame Apple for not storing it securely. But design a system tailor-made for the government to control app distribution and it’s only the government’s fault for (ab)using it? This is not a recently discovered vulnerability. It was obvious in theory from the dawn of the App Store, and governments have been putting it into practice for almost as long.<\/p>\n\n

Paul Haddad<\/a>:<\/p>\n

At the rate things are going, I expect an “Apple provides government with list of users who downloaded ICEBlock app” headline in a few more weeks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

It’s also a flaw in the system that Apple gets a list<\/a> of all the apps everyone’s installed, even for free apps.<\/p>\n\n

Richard Hyde<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It won’t just be a list of users though, thanks to “Find My” they’ll have their current location too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Kyle Hughes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I am complicit for having spent my career trying to make this platform attractive to users—drawing them out of places where their rights had more resilience.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I fixate on clear examples that make it easy to think about nuanced topics.<\/p>\n

That it is federally illegal to distribute TikTok, yet it remains in the App Store, and that it is not illegal to host or share videos of law enforcement activity, yet these apps are being removed, is one such example.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Warner Crocker<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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The Eyes Up website<\/a> is still up and can be used for the same video archiving purposes with content uploaded from TikTok, Instagram or X and include “a mix of professional media reports and user-generated clips of ICE arrests.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n