Breaking

San Francisco Orders Apple and Google to Pull 13 AI 'Face-Swap' Apps Used to Create Nonconsensual Nudes

July 17, 2026 at 06:07 EDT

Policy & Regulation
Security
Media Generation

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu this week sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google, demanding that the two tech giants remove 13 AI-powered "face-swap" apps from their stores and stop profiting from tools that are overwhelmingly used to generate nonconsensual nude images of women and girls.

Enforcement Action · San Francisco City Attorney

San Francisco Demands Apple and Google Delete AI "Nudify" Apps

Cease-and-desist letters target 13 AI face-swap apps used to generate nonconsensual nude images — a preliminary step that could precede formal litigation against the app-store gatekeepers.

Apps flagged — 8 on Apple's App Store, 5 on Google Play

~480M

Cumulative downloads across ~100 nudify-capable apps

~$120M

Estimated revenue, with platforms taking a cut of in-app fees

Weak Safety Controls: apps tested that produced nude images

Of 155 face-swap apps tested (out of 420 found across the two stores)

70%

Generated
nude images

30%

Did not

Takeaway: more than two-thirds of tested "face-swap" apps could strip clothing from images without consent.

Google — Responded

Says it removed hundreds of nudify-capable apps, including the five flagged, and restricted search terms such as "nudify."

Apple — No Comment

Declined to comment publicly. Both firms ban abusive content, but critics say enforcement lags the scale of distribution.

A Sustained Campaign — What Comes Next

Aug 2024

Sued 16 deepfake porn sites — several closed or restricted access

→

This week

Cease-and-desist letters to Apple & Google over 13 apps

→

If unmet

Litigation possible — scrutiny shifts to app-store gatekeepers

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