San Francisco demands Google and Apple remove 'nudify' apps from their stores

Key Points:

• San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google demanding the removal of 13 "nudify" apps that create AI-generated nonconsensual nude images, citing harm to women's mental health and reputations.
• The letters target eight apps on Apple's App Store and five on Google Play; Google has suspended all five identified apps and hundreds of others violating policies on sexual content.
• Apple confirmed it has removed three of the targeted apps, is terminating the developers' accounts, and is working with others to address policy violations, emphasizing its strict prohibition of apps generating pornography.
• The issue reflects broader concerns about deepfake apps, with a Tech Transparency Project report noting these apps have been downloaded over 705 million times and generated $117 million in revenue.
• Both Apple and Google profit from in-app payments linked to these apps, prompting Chiu to call for an end to their facilitation of such harmful content, while Google has enhanced its review processes to prevent nonconsensual intimate imagery creation.