“Generating non-consensual intimate images is illegal, harmful, and completely unacceptable,” Chiu said.
The move expands Chiu’s campaign against deepfake pornography beyond websites and toward the companies that distribute mobile apps. His office previously sued 16 major deepfake websites, but the new letters focus on Apple and Google as gatekeepers for mobile software and payments.
According to the letters, one of the apps named by Chiu has exceeded 1 million downloads and promotes AI image styles such as “bikini queen curvy” and “cinematic intimacy.” Another app advertises “free and uncensored” video generation. Chiu’s office says the apps appear in public listings as face-swap tools but reveal sexual image-generation functions after users install them.
Google said it had removed the five Android apps identified by Chiu, as well as hundreds of other apps in the same category. The company also said it has limited Play Store searches for terms such as “nudify.” Apple did not comment before publication. Both companies prohibit pornography, harassment and abuse under their developer rules.
Outside research points to a larger enforcement gap. The Tech Transparency Project reported in January 2026 and April 2026 that roughly 100 nudify apps were available across Apple’s and Google’s stores. The group estimated those apps had been downloaded about 480 million times and had produced around $120 million in combined revenue before takedowns.
Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, said the recurrence of the apps after earlier scrutiny was unexpected.
“We didn’t think after the first report that we would see this as a problem again—and it was just as bad, if not worse, after the second report,” Paul said.
A separate May 2026 preprint from researchers at Cornell University and Georgetown University examined 420 face-swap apps across the two stores. The researchers tested 155 of them and found that 70% could be used to create nude face swaps without safety controls preventing the process. The paper described the apps as “dual-use,” meaning they can appear harmless during review while still allowing harmful output once accessed by users.
Chiu said the resulting images are used to bully, humiliate and threaten women and girls, and that some victims have become suicidal. He said he wants Apple and Google to remove the apps and improve review systems so similar tools do not return. If the companies do not comply, he said his office will consider “all of our legal options.”
The letters place Apple and Google in a more direct role in the fight over nonconsensual AI imagery. Rather than focusing only on websites or image-generation providers, Chiu is targeting the stores that approve, distribute and monetize the apps. That approach raises a sharper question for the companies: whether their app review systems can reliably detect face-swap products that are marketed as general editing tools but can be used to create sexual abuse material.
For Apple and Google, removing the 13 named apps may be the simpler part. The harder issue is whether store enforcement can keep pace with a category that researchers say repeatedly reappears under benign branding. If Chiu’s office escalates, the companies may have to defend not just their policies, but how those policies are applied to apps that can pass review while retaining the same harmful capabilities.
This analysis is based on reporting from Wired.
Image courtesy of Unsplash.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
