Meta has agreed to shut down a Facebook group that shared information about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Chicago after a request from the Department of Justice, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi. In a post on X, Bondi said the large group was being used to “dox and target ICE agents.”
“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 wrote. “The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.”
Group had over 80,000 followers
According to The New York Times, the Facebook group was called “ICE Sighting–Chicagoland,” which had more than 80,000 followers. A Meta spokesperson confirmed to the Times that Facebook took down the group, saying that it violated Facebook’s policies against “coordinated harm.”
“In an effort to prevent and disrupt offline harm and copycat behavior, we prohibit people from facilitating, organizing, promoting or admitting to certain criminal or harmful activities targeted at people, businesses, property or animals,” Meta’s Coordinating Harm and Promoting Crime policy states.
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Bondi did not elaborate on any specific incidents from the Facebook group. According to Fox Business, the group was allegedly posting personal information about immigration officers working in the Windy City during Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts.
New group and app removals follow
Another Facebook group titled “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland 2” was created earlier this week and already amassed over 6,000 followers. According to the group’s “About” section, the group was created to “Share any ICE sighting in the Chicagoland area! Let this be the centralized group [where] everyone can be informed.”
Members of the new group are asking users only to upload information and videos about where ICE agents are conducting immigration enforcement in the city, as well as resources for immigrants.
“Do not share ICE agents’ personal information (addresses, phone numbers, emails, or photos),” one user posted to the group page.
Under pressure from the Trump administration, Apple and Google recently removed from their app stores certain apps designed to track ICE, The Times reports. One of the apps removed was ICEBlock, a free app that allowed hundreds of thousands of users to post sightings of ICE agents anonymously.
