Apple’s updated App Store rules go after ‘nudify’ AI apps
The terms more explicitly ban apps that create ‘nonconsensual intimate imagery.’
The terms more explicitly ban apps that create ‘nonconsensual intimate imagery.’
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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
Apple’s App Store rules now more explicitly ban so-called “nudify” apps that generate intimate images of people without their consent using AI tools.
The rule changes follow significant criticism toward Apple after X users used Grok earlier this year to make nonconsensual, sexualized deepfakes, including minors. Apple didn’t pull X or Grok from the App Store, though it told senators that it threatened to yank Grok. At Apple’s WWDC event in June, protestors also called on Apple to “remove Grok, X, and all nudify technology from the App Store,” and in July, a San Francisco city attorney ordered Apple to remove 13 “nudify” apps, which it said it did.
As part of updates announced Friday, Apple says that developers “must proactively prevent and remove” nonconsensual, sexual images as part of its content moderation requirements for App Store apps. Developers who “fail to implement adequate safeguards” or “don’t remedy violations after notice” may be removed from the App Store. Apple also clarified a rule that bars “bait-and-switch” apps, or apps that add or change features, including “nudification,” after they have been approved.
Apple’s rules also more clearly spell out that any apps that “facilitate human trafficking or the exploitation of children” will be pulled from the App Store and “blocked from alternative distribution.”
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