Apple has updated its App Store rules to more explicitly ban so-called "nudify" apps, which use AI tools to generate intimate images of people without their consent. The company announced the changes Friday.
The move follows heavy criticism of Apple after X users used Grok earlier this year to create nonconsensual, sexualized deepfakes, including images of minors. Apple did not remove X or Grok from the App Store. It did tell senators that it had threatened to pull Grok.
The pressure on Apple built through the year. At the company's WWDC event in June, protesters called on Apple to "remove Grok, X, and all nudify technology from the App Store." In July, a San Francisco city attorney ordered Apple to remove 13 "nudify" apps. Apple said it complied.
Under the updated guidelines, developers "must proactively prevent and remove" nonconsensual sexual images as part of the App Store's content moderation requirements. Developers that "fail to implement adequate safeguards" or "don't remedy violations after notice" may be removed from the store.
Apple also clarified a rule barring "bait-and-switch" apps, meaning apps that add or change features after they have been approved. The clarification specifically covers "nudification."
The revised rules also state more clearly that any app that "facilitate[s] human trafficking or the exploitation of children" will be pulled from the App Store and "blocked from alternative distribution." That language extends the enforcement reach beyond the App Store itself, into the alternative distribution channels Apple controls.
This article was written with the assistance of AI.
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