Nudify Apps Are a Form of Sexual Abuse, Not a Quirky AI Trend
Nudify apps are AI face-swap tools that digitally undress people without consent, generating nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes from ordinary photos and turning them into weaponized pornography that can be shared, monetized, and used to threaten, humiliate, or punish women and girls in their daily lives. This is the reality San Francisco’s city attorney has finally decided to confront. On Thursday, David Chiu sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google demanding nudify apps removal for 13 AI face-swap apps that create nonconsensual nude images. His message is blunt: these nonconsensual deepfakes amount to sexual abuse, and companies that distribute and profit from them are not neutral platforms—they are aiding and abetting harm. The legal move is overdue, and it exposes a deeper failure in app store moderation that has allowed exploitative AI tools to flourish.
Cheap, Profitable, and Aimed at Women and Girls
These AI face-swap apps are deliberately designed to be low-friction: some nudification tools charge as little as USD 1 (approx. RM4.60) per generated explicit image, turning sexualized abuse into an impulse purchase. At the same time, they can be highly profitable, with reports estimating collective revenues in the tens of millions of dollars per year. That business model depends on targeting women and girls. Common targets include current and ex-girlfriends, sisters, cousins, and other relatives, reflecting a pattern in which intimate social ties become the raw material for nonconsensual deepfakes. Disturbingly, the aim is not always sexual gratification; many users want to “get people fired from jobs and compromising their livelihoods and lives in nefarious ways,” as one researcher notes. This is workplace sabotage, harassment, and reputational extortion masquerading as entertainment technology—and victims are left to pick up the pieces.
YouTube and X: From Moderation Policies to Gateways for Abuse
While app stores host these tools, mainstream social platforms help them grow. A recent study found that social networks drove more than 5.7 million visits to nudify sites between December 2025 and March 2026. YouTube alone accounted for around 1.82 million referrals—over 30 percent of the traffic—through videos that review nudify apps, promote “undress app” keywords, and share promo codes. X was the second-largest source, driving more than 1.3 million visits. According to the study’s authors, this behavior is in “direct conflict” with platform rules that ban sexually explicit and nonconsensual intimate imagery, including synthetic content. In other words, deepfake app enforcement is not failing because policies don’t exist; it is failing because those policies are enforced selectively, after journalists and researchers have already mapped the damage. Social platforms are not just passive conduits; they are gateways actively funneling users toward harm.
App Store Moderation: Strong Rules, Weak Enforcement
Apple and Google both claim to prohibit pornography, abuse, and harassment in their developer policies. Yet researchers have repeatedly found AI nudify apps in their stores, including some rated as suitable for children—a stunning failure of app store moderation. Chiu’s letters argue that by processing in-app payments and taking a cut, these companies have “made millions of dollars in fees” from the sale of explicit deepfake images. That economic link turns mere hosting into active participation. Under California law, services that support deepfake pornography creation can be illegal, and Chiu frames the stores’ behavior as “supporting services” that enable abuse. Both companies highlight deepfake app enforcement after the fact—Google says it has suspended “hundreds” of apps with nudifying features and restricted search terms such as “nudify,” while Apple says it has removed several flagged apps and is terminating their developer accounts. But reactive clean-up after public exposure is not protection; it is damage control.
What Users Need to Do While Platforms Drag Their Feet
San Francisco’s legal pressure is a necessary start, but users cannot wait for perfect enforcement. Anyone—especially women and girls—should assume that ordinary photos shared with acquaintances or online can be fed into nonconsensual deepfakes. The practical steps are imperfect but important: treat unknown AI face-swap apps as hostile by default, avoid uploading images to services whose policies you cannot easily verify, and use app store reporting tools when you encounter nudify apps that slip through moderation. Victims should document abuse and seek legal advice early; nonconsensual intimate imagery is already illegal in many jurisdictions. Ultimately, nudify apps removal should not depend on whistleblowers and one city attorney. Platforms that claim to be “safe and trusted” must prove it by enforcing their own rules before harm occurs—not after headlines shame them into action.
