San Francisco’s city attorney has ordered Apple and Google to remove dozens of “nudify” apps, tools that create non-consensual fake nude images, from their app stores within 28 days or face civil penalties. The city says both companies knowingly profited from apps that exploit women and girls. Both firms have started pulling the flagged apps.

Key Takeaways

• San Francisco ordered Apple and Google to remove “nudify” apps
• The apps create non-consensual AI-generated intimate images
• The companies have 28 days to comply or face civil penalties
• City Attorney David Chiu says both profited from the apps
• Apple pulled several apps, and Google suspended the flagged ones

What San Francisco Ordered

The action came as formal legal demands. San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google, ordering them to remove dozens of nudify apps, software that digitally alters photos to depict clothed people as nude, from their app stores.

The apps hide behind a benign label. The 13 apps flagged by the City Attorney’s Office, eight on the App Store and five on Google Play, broadly advertise themselves as face-swapping tools, with the ability to create sexual deepfakes surfacing only once people use them.

The demand carries a deadline. The letters give the companies 28 days to respond, warning they could face civil penalties, and call on both to stop aiding and abetting the sale of such images and to sever ties with the developers behind them.

Chiu framed it in stark terms. He said generating non-consensual intimate images is illegal, harmful, and completely unacceptable, adding that it has to stop when some of the world’s largest technology companies are helping facilitate it.

The Legal Basis

The order rests on California law. The state criminalizes any activity that knowingly facilitates or recklessly aids the creation of non-consensual deepfake pornography, giving the city a statutory hook for the demand.

A newer law widens the exposure. In 2025, California passed legislation allowing victims to pursue civil actions against third-party facilitators of such material, which extends potential liability to the app stores that distribute and monetize these tools.

The city argues the companies were on notice. Chiu’s office contends both firms have long been aware of these regulations yet continued to host and make money from the apps, strengthening the basis for the penalty warning.

The Profit Allegation

Money is central to the city’s case. Chiu said Apple and Google are profiting off apps that exploit women and girls by generating non-consensual intimate deepfakes, and that both have a responsibility to be proactive in preventing such abuse.

The sums may be significant. Chiu told Wired that both companies had likely made millions of dollars in fees from apps offering nudification services, since payments for the apps were processed through the platforms themselves.

Watchdog reports set the stage. In January and again in April, the Tech Transparency Project reported dozens of apps across both stores that sold non-consensual intimate images in exchange for payments processed by the firms, and accused both of steering users toward such apps.

The Child-Safety Dimension

The harm extends to minors, which sharpens the concern. Researchers have repeatedly found and reported apps across both stores that generate sexual images using AI, including some rated as suitable for use by children.

The reporting was handled carefully. Wired said it deliberately did not name the apps in its coverage to avoid directing more users toward them, a caution warranted given the potential for these tools to be used against real people, including minors.

The stakes explain the urgency. Non-consensual intimate imagery causes lasting harm to victims, and its use in schools and against young people has made it a growing focus for lawmakers and child-safety advocates.

How Apple and Google Responded

Both companies have begun acting. Apple said it removed three of the flagged apps and is terminating the related developer accounts, while noting it is in contact with four others that must address policy violations or risk removal.

Google moved on its set. The company reported that all five of the referenced apps on Google Play have been suspended, and said it takes action against apps reported for violating its policies.

Both point to existing rules. Apple said its App Store has always prohibited apps designed to generate or distribute pornography, and that nudification apps violate its App Review Guidelines, adding it has proactively rejected and removed many such apps. Both companies have removed dozens of similar apps in the past following reports from researchers and journalists.

Why It Matters

This is a test of platform accountability. By invoking a law that reaches third-party facilitators, San Francisco is pressing the argument that app stores can’t simply host and profit from harmful tools and disclaim responsibility for what they enable.

The enforcement gap is the core issue. Both companies already ban this content in policy, yet watchdogs keep finding the apps, which suggests reactive removal isn’t keeping pace, exactly the proactive vigilance the city says is required.

The outcome could ripple outward. If the threat of civil penalties forces faster, more systematic moderation, it may reshape how the largest app stores police AI tools built to harm, at a moment when generative AI has made creating this kind of abuse easier than ever.

This is a sensitive topic, and if you or someone you know has been affected by non-consensual intimate imagery, support and reporting resources are available through organizations dedicated to helping victims.

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