San Francisco Orders Apple and Google to Pull AI 'Nudify' Apps
A city attorney sent cease-and-desist letters to both tech giants over 13 apps that create fake nude images of real people without their consent.
Key points
- San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent legal notices to Apple and Google on Thursday demanding removal of 13 specific apps from their stores.
- The targeted apps include 8 on Apple's App Store and 5 on Google's Play Store, all marketed as "face-swapping" tools.
- Cornell and Georgetown University researchers found in May 2025 that 70 percent of face-swap apps they tested could produce nude deepfakes with no safety checks.
- Apps flagged by the Tech Transparency Project in early 2025 had been downloaded roughly 480 million times and earned an estimated $120 million combined.
- Google confirmed it removed the five Android apps named in the letter; Apple had not commented at time of publication.
Upload a photo of someone you know and, in seconds, get back a fake naked image of them. No technical skill required. Just a picture and a couple of taps.
On Thursday, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent cease-and-desist letters, formal demands to stop specified conduct, to Apple and Google, asking both companies to immediately pull 13 apps from their stores. The apps advertise themselves as face-swapping tools but let users create AI-generated nonconsensual intimate images, fake sexual pictures of real people made without their knowledge or agreement.
Chiu's office says the two companies have likely "made millions of dollars in fees" from these apps, because both take a cut of in-app purchases. California law prohibits supporting services that create deepfake pornography, and the letters say the companies are "aiding and abetting" that harm.
"These images are used to bully and humiliate women and girls," Chiu told Wired AI, which first reported the story. "There have been victims who've been suicidal."
Google spokesperson Dan Jackson confirmed the company deleted the five Android apps named in the letter, plus "hundreds" of others, and restricted search terms such as "nudify" inside its store. Apple did not respond before publication.
Why haven't the stores caught these apps already?
Both Apple and Google have written policies banning pornography and harassment, but apps slip through by disguising themselves as innocent editing tools. A May 2025 preprint from Cornell University and Georgetown University tested 155 face-swap apps and found 70 percent could produce nude deepfakes with no safety features in place. The paper described these as "dual-use" apps: software that looks harmless but can cause serious harm once opened.
The Tech Transparency Project, an independent watchdog, reported around 100 such apps across both stores in January and April 2025. Director Katie Paul was direct: "Apple and Google make a lot of promises about how trusted and safe their app stores are. That is just not what is playing out in reality."
As AI2Day reported on 14 July 2026, YouTube alone sent 1.8 million people to nudify sites in four months, a reminder that the distribution problem runs well beyond the app stores named here. Previous reporting uncovered deepfake sexual images of minors created in at least 90 schools.
Chiu says his office will pursue further legal action if the companies do not act. "If they don't do the right thing, we will have to consider all of our legal options," he said. Google has already moved. The test now is whether Apple follows before a court orders it to.
