Why is this important?
Apple shouldn’t allow Citizen — an app that wants people to surveil and police their own communities — in their App Store. Apple booted Citizen off before for content concerns when it was called Vigilante, and they should do it again, because Citizen still encourages app users to take the law into their own hands.
Citizen is an app that would like to function as a tech extension of the police. Formerly called Vigilante, Citizen wants neighbors to police each other and surveil their own communities with a few clicks. But the app is dangerous and it’s wreaking havoc in our communities. And now Citizen is getting special access to encrypted police communications in Baltimore, amping up its ability to cause harm.¹
On May 14th, Andrew Frame, Citizen’s CEO, offered a reward of $30,000 for help in the arrest of an alleged arsonist after police claimed that a “homeless man with a criminal past” was to blame for a string of fires. Reports say that Frame saw this as an opportunity for the app to “fulfill its true mission.” The man’s picture was shared in a Citizen livestream and app alerts encouraged users to “hunt down” the man in the photo.²
Just hours later police located but quickly released the man after realizing he had nothing to do with the fires.
An app that inspires hunting down unhoused people shouldn’t be in the App Store.
Sign the petition to tell Tim Cook to remove Citizen from its App store and stop encouraging communities to turn against each other.
Apple kicked off Citizen (then called Vigilante) a few years ago for content concerns, and they can do it again.³ The app hasn’t changed anything but its name. For example, Citizen users can still report anyone they deem suspicious or not belonging in their neighborhood. Analysts even stated that the app can be a “digital superhighway for racial profiling.”⁴
Our movements are already working hard to create a world where police violence doesn’t happen and communities care for each other. The tech we use should help us lookout for one another, not spy on our neighbors.
Sign the petition telling Apple’s CEO: remove Citizen from the App Store.
Sources:
1. “Citizen App Says It Will Get Access to Encrypted Police Comms,” Vice Motherboard, June 30, 2021.
2. “Citizen CEO Offered to Personally Fund LA Arson Manhunt — for the Wrong Person,” The Verge, May 21, 2021.
3. “Crime-reporting app Vigilante kicked off App Store over Apple's content concerns,” Guardian, November 1, 2016.
4. “Citizen crime-tracking app, funded by Peter Thiel, scraps plans for on-demand police force,” CBS News, May 26, 2021.
