CNN on Tuesday defended a recent report on an app that alerts users to the location of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, saying there was “nothing illegal” about covering it.
“This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it,” CNN said in a statement. “There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, meanwhile, told reporters on Tuesday that there may be grounds to open a Department of Justice investigation into the news network and prosecute them over its report on the app. Noem did not note what laws she’s alleging CNN of breaking in its coverage.
“We’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute [CNN] for that,” she said. “What they are doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities and operations. We are actually going to go after them and prosecute them.”
CNN ran a report on the app, dubbed “ICEBlock,” on Monday, which allows users to anonymously alert other users to ICE movements within a five-mile radius.
Reporter Clare Duffy, during an appearance on CNN on Monday, said the app creator wants ICEBlock to serve as an “early warning system” for those who are worried about ICE raids. The app founder, Aaron Joshua, told CNN, he “wanted to do something to fight back” because the raids remind him of Nazi Germany.
Later, during an appearance on CNN, Duffy said Joshua “does not want people interfering with those officers’ activity, but he does want them to avoid them altogether, if they want.”
Duffy’s report was shared by Libs of TiKTok on X and has been viewed more than 4 million times.
The report was met with swift criticism from many conservatives who said the app put ICE agents in danger and interfered with their ability to remove people who are in the U.S. illegally.
Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, said CNN is “openly helping invaders and insurrectionists sabotage ICE” by reporting on the app.
And actor James Woods reposted the report via Libs of TikTok and encouraged his followers to flood the app with false reports. “To protect our law enforcement personnel, post ‘sightings’ everywhere you can,” he said. “Overwhelm this website.”
While representatives for ICE did not respond to CNN’s initial requests for comment on their report, the story was updated later Monday to include a critical statement from acting director Todd Lyons in which he argued that ICEBlock “basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs” and that “officers and agents are already facing a 500% increase in assaults.”
