The White House has an app now, and Trump wants you to report people to ICE on it

[Stevie Bonifield in The Verge]

A little history lesson from the Wiener Holocaust Library:

“In Nazi Germany, some citizens passed on information about their neighbours, family, and friends to the Gestapo . This was called informing. Nazi propaganda presented the Gestapo as an omnipresent , all-seeing, all-knowing group, but in reality there was just one secret police officer for approximately every 10,000 citizens of Nazi Germany. The Gestapo were therefore reliant on a network of thousands of informants.

The information passed on by informants typically accused someone of breaking the law or of being a criminal in some way. The information provided was not always based on fact and could often be rumour or suspicion.”

Meanwhile, in completely unrelated news, The Verge reports on a new app from the White House:

“A new official White House app on Android and iOS takes the content from the White House website and copies it into app format. […] A handful of tabs in the app mostly replicate pages that exist on the Trump Administration’s version of the White House website, including news, livestreams, social feeds, and a gallery. A prominent “Get in Touch” button on the social feeds tab includes an option for users to submit a tip to ICE, which takes them to a tip form on the ICE website.”

Wow, am I glad to be living in a time where everything is normal and the historical precedents are not literally screaming at us.

[Link]