This week, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu issued a cease-and-desist letter to Apple and Google, demanding the removal of 13 controversial nudification apps from their app stores, as reported by Wired.
Nudification apps enable users to transform ordinary photos of real individuals into explicit images using harmful AI technology. This dangerous tool allows malicious users to digitally strip clothing, alter a person’s features, place them in sexual positions, and swap victims’ faces with those of another person’s naked body.
Chiu’s letter highlighted that these apps are “prohibited by California law,” particularly concerning the creation of deepfake porn, as noted by Wired.
In an interview with Wired, Chiu expressed horror at the pervasive use of nudification technology, emphasizing the alarming scale of victimization, particularly affecting women and children, as such tools become readily available.
“These images are used to bully, humiliate, and intimidate women and girls,” Chiu stated. “The impact of this industry on individuals’ reputations, mental health, and personal autonomy is devastating. Some victims have even contemplated suicide.”
Wired reviewed Chiu’s letter, which specified that he asked Google to remove five apps and Apple to take down eight. The names of the apps were not disclosed to prevent directing users to them; however, one app has been downloaded over a million times and advertised its ability to sexualize images of women.
According to Chiu, it is absolutely unacceptable for such harmful apps to exist in the app store.
“The production of intimate images without consent is illegal, harmful, and entirely unacceptable,” Chiu emphasized. His office estimates that Apple and Google have likely “earned millions of dollars” in fees by failing to act against these harmful apps instead of developing better detection methods.
In a statement to Ars Technica, Google spokesperson Dan Jackson confirmed that the five apps reported by Chiu were suspended from the Google Play Store due to violations of harmful content policies.
“Google Play does not permit apps with sexual content, and we continue to take proactive measures to identify and eliminate harmful content,” Jackson reaffirmed. “When violations are brought to our attention, we investigate and take swift action, which included suspending hundreds of violative apps and restricting related search terms such as ‘nudity’ from the Store.”
Source: arstechnica.com