San Francisco Legal Notices Target 13 AI Face-Swap Apps On Apple And Google Stores

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu is demanding that Apple and Google remove 13 face-swapping apps that can generate AI-made non-consensual nude images, arguing that the companies are helping developers sell explicit deepfakes through their app stores.

Chiu sent legal notices to the companies on Thursday.

The letters call on Apple and Google to stop “aiding and abetting” the sale of the images and to sever their business relationships with the developers.

They also cite California laws that prohibit supporting services used to create deepfake pornography.

The notices cover eight apps on Apple’s App Store and five on Google Play.

The apps use in-app payments, from which the platforms take a cut.

Chiu told WIRED that Apple and Google have likely “made millions of dollars in fees” from services offering nudification.

“Generating non-consensual intimate images is illegal, harmful, and completely unacceptable,” Chiu said.

His office previously took legal action against 16 popular deepfake websites.

He said the images are used to “bully, humiliate, and threaten women and girls,” with consequences including damage to reputation, mental-health harm and loss of autonomy.

Google said it had already removed hundreds of apps with nudifying features for policy violations, including the five Android apps identified by Chiu’s office.

Spokesperson Dan Jackson said Google Play does not allow apps containing sexual content and that the company investigates reports and acts to restrict access to violating apps.

Google also said it had suspended hundreds of apps and restricted related search terms, including “nudify.” Apple did not provide comment before publication.

Both companies have developer policies prohibiting pornography, abuse and harassment, and both have previously removed dozens of nudify and deepfake apps after findings by researchers and journalists.

The 13 targeted apps generally presented themselves as face-swapping tools rather than nudification services.

Their sexual-deepfake capabilities became available after users began using them.

One app’s website claimed more than 1 million downloads and displayed image styles including “bikini queen curvy,” “calm busty,” and “cinematic intimacy.” Another advertised “free and uncensored” videos.

WIRED did not name the apps to avoid directing people toward them.

Researchers have repeatedly found similar tools on both stores.

The Tech Transparency Project identified around 100 apps in January and April this year, along with advertisements for nudifying technology.

Its research estimated that the apps had been downloaded around 480 million times and may have generated about $120 million in combined revenue.

Google said it removed most of the apps identified by the group.

A May preprint from researchers at Cornell University and Georgetown University examined a broader category of face-swapping tools.

The researchers identified 420 apps across Apple’s and Google’s stores and tested 155 of them.

In 70 percent of cases, the apps could be used to create face swaps with nude images, without safety measures preventing that use.

The researchers described the products as “dual-use” apps that can appear benign while retaining the ability to create harmful content.

Previous reporting by WIRED and Indicator Media found deepfake sexual-abuse images created at at least 90 schools, while the technology has also been used to generate millions of sexualized images online.

Chiu said he hopes Apple and Google will immediately remove the apps and strengthen their screening systems.

If they do not, he said, San Francisco will “have to consider all of our legal options.”