Apple is facing mounting criticism from two former executives over its decision to remove the ICE-spotting app ICEBlock from the App Store. In a letter addressed to CEO Tim Cook, longtime Apple veteran Wiley Hodges said he was “deeply disturbed” by the move, as first reported by Daring Fireball.
Hodges, who spent over 22 years at Apple — including more than a decade as a director of marketing and product management — helped bring products like Xcode and Swift to market. In his letter, he reflected on his former pride in the company’s principles. “I used to believe Apple were unequivocally the good guys,” he wrote. “I passionately advocated for people to understand Apple as being on the side of its users above all else. I now feel like I must question that.”
Apple removed ICEBlock and other related apps last week following a request from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who argued that the app “puts ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.” Google also removed similar apps, including Red Dot, though reports suggest it did so voluntarily and not in response to a federal directive.
Hodges’ letter references Apple’s 2016 standoff with the U.S. government over the San Bernardino iPhone case, calling it a defining moment in Apple’s public defense of user privacy. “That act of lawful, principled defiance of government intimidation helped convince people that Apple’s actions and stated ideals were aligned,” he wrote. However, Hodges says that by removing ICEBlock without clear legal justification, Apple has “squandered that same good faith.”
He argues that Apple’s decision undermines its own principles — particularly its pledge to uphold an open society even when it “disagrees with a country’s laws.” According to Hodges, “The removal of ICEBlock without evidence that the government followed due legal process represents an erosion of this principled stance.”
Another former Apple leader, Alex Horovitz, who previously served as a senior manager overseeing manufacturing systems and infrastructure, echoed Hodges’ concerns in a separate letter. “Apple is more than a corporation; it is a cultural institution built on courage and principle,” Horovitz wrote. “Each time it quietly yields to political pressure, it strengthens the hand of those who would centralize power and weaken the freedoms the company once championed.”
Both Hodges and Horovitz are calling on Cook to clarify why Apple complied with the government’s request and whether any formal legal order justified the app’s removal.
“I hope you recognize how every inch you voluntarily give to an authoritarian regime adds to their illegitimately derived power,” Hodges concluded. “It is up to all of us to demand that the rule of law — not the whims of a handful of people, even elected ones — govern our collective enterprise.”
