San Francisco demands Apple, Google remove nudification apps from stores

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google demanding that they remove 13 nudification apps from their stores. The apps can turn ordinary photos into nonconsensual nude or sexually explicit images of real people, a form of abuse that can spread quickly and leave victims with little control once the images are made.

Chiu’s office said both companies had long been aware they were hosting apps that violated state law. The office also said Apple and Google likely made millions of dollars from the apps through fees and app-store transactions, putting direct financial pressure on the same systems that are supposed to screen out illegal content before it reaches users.

In August 2024, Chiu announced a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against websites creating AI-generated nonconsensual explicit images. By March 18, 2025, the city attorney’s office was taking down websites spreading deepfake nudes. Other city efforts targeted 10 websites that create nonconsensual deepfake pornography and 16 websites that use AI to develop and distribute non-consensual deepfake nude images of women and girls.

In an April 1, 2026 letter, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff warned Tim Cook about nudify apps available through Apple’s App Store and Apple’s sign-on system, saying the apps had in some cases been used to develop illegal AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

Mainstream platforms such as YouTube and X were steering users toward nudify services, some of which sold nonconsensual explicit deepfakes for as little as $1 per image.