LOS ANGELES:- Meta has removed a Facebook page used to track the presence of immigration agents at the request of the Justice Department, the company confirmed Tuesday.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in her post on X that after “outreach” from the Department of Justice, Facebook has removed a “large group page” used to target ICE officers.
Meta issued a statement saying that the group was removed for “violating our policies against coordinated harm.”
Meta is the latest tech company to ban tools used to track ice agents on its platform.
Earlier this month, Apple and Google blocked downloads of phone apps that indicated scenes of US immigration agents, just hours after the Trump administration demanded the removal of a particularly popular iPhone app.
Bondi said such tracking puts Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at risk. But the app’s users and developers say it’s their First Amendment right to capture what ICE is doing in their neighborhoods. As President Donald Trump promotes aggressive immigration enforcement across the country, many users maintain that they are turning to these platforms in an effort to protect their safety.
While a Facebook group for ice viewing in Chicago appears to have been removed, by Tuesday evening, dozens of other groups, some with thousands of members, began appearing on Facebook.