A Facebook group that shared information on sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Chicago area was taken down by Meta following pressure from the Justice Department, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Facebook page ICE Sighting-Chicagoland had over 70,000 members in recent weeks as the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” has ramped up in Chicago and the suburbs. With federal agents making arrests in unmarked vehicles and appearing everywhere from outside schools to shopping plazas, rapid response networks formed to record and disrupt raids.
The Department of Homeland Security announced Oct. 1 it had made 800 arrests in the area since the mission began at the beginning of September.
“The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs,” Bondi posted on X Tuesday morning. “The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.”
Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan said the page violated its policies on coordinating harm. The policy states that content “outing the undercover status of law enforcement, military, or security personnel if the content contains the agent’s name, their face or badge” would be removed.
Brennan joined Meta as its strategic response public affairs manager in January and was director of strategic response for Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, according to Politico.
The page’s ban comes as federal agents deployed tear gas to a crowd of protesters in the East Side neighborhood Tuesday after a border patrol truck was involved in a crash.
Earlier this month, Bondi and the Department of Justice pressured Apple to remove the app ICEBlock from the App Store.
“We are incredibly disappointed by Apple’s actions. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” the app’s creators wrote after the removal.
“Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false. ICEBlock is no different from crowdsourcing speed traps, which every notable mapping application, including Apple’s own Maps app, implements as part of its core services. This is protected speech under the first amendment of the United States Constitution.”
Chicago Tribune’s Gregory Royal Pratt contributed.
