An Illinois judge has sided with the creators of a Facebook group and mobile app that help people Monitor ICE activityIt found that the Trump administration violated creators’ First Amendment rights when it “forced” Facebook and Apple to remove them.
Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the United States District Court for Northern Illinois given He says the original ruling, which prevents the feds from forcing tech companies to act on objectionable content, allows Facebook and Apple to “make their own decisions.”
It’s the ICE Sightings – Chicagoland Facebook group created by Cassandra Rosado in January 2025 and the Kreisau Group’s Eyes Up iOS app, which went live in August. Both allowed people to post videos and information about ICE activity.
However, in October, Apple removed Eyes Up (as well as similar apps). ICEBlock and Red Dot) and closed the Facebook Chicagoland group.
It came after the influencer Laura Loomer Chicagoland was published by tagging now-former Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Bondi on October 14 he tweeted Saying Facebook removed the Chicagoland group “after contacting the Department of Justice,” the agency “will continue to engage technology companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.” Noem sent a similar message.
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These and other statements These are the things that have landed the Trump administration in hot water. As the judge noted, neither Chicagoland nor Eyes Up had any serious infringement on Facebook or the App Store. “Of the thousands of posts and tens of thousands of comments made in the Chicagoland Facebook group through October 14, Facebook moderators found only five posts and comments that allegedly violated Facebook’s guidelines,” the judge said. Apple, meanwhile, “was aware of the purpose of Eyes Up” and still confirmed it.
What changed was pressure from Washington. Bondi and Noem “reached out to Facebook and Apple and, instead of demanding, Facebook and Apple censor the plaintiff’s speech.” They “also warned that Facebook and Apple could be prosecuted for not complying with (their) demands.”
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“Although these statements are not direct threats to prosecute Facebook and Apple, they are intimations of threats,” the judge said. “And thinly veiled threats like these are proof enough that Plaintiffs can succeed in their case.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the non-profit organization that brought the suit, He said in X that he is “extremely encouraged by this verdict”. As noted, this is just one step in the case, but it “bodes well for the future of our legal fight to ensure that the First Amendment protects the right to discuss, celebrate, and criticize what law enforcement does in public.”
The case is somewhat ironic, as President Trump and the GOP have vehemently criticized the Biden administration for taking to social media about COVID posts they consider misinformation. This dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court who ruled in favor of the Biden adminfinding that officials did not force social networks to take action.
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