Overview
- San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent cease‑and‑desist letters on Thursday demanding Apple remove eight iOS apps and Google remove five Android apps that can produce nonconsensual nude images.
- The letters accuse the companies of helping developers sell explicit deepfakes and require a response within 28 days or face possible civil enforcement and fines that can be at least $25,000 per violation.
- Google told reporters it has deleted the five Play Store apps named by the city and has suspended hundreds of similar apps, while most outlets report Apple did not provide a public comment on the letters.
- Independent researchers and watchdogs have found hundreds of face‑swap or editing apps that can be used to create sexualized deepfakes, with estimates of hundreds of millions of downloads and tens to hundreds of millions in revenue.
- Chiu’s action is meant to test recent California laws that expand liability for third parties that enable nonconsensual deepfakes and could push app stores to change how they screen apps and process in‑app payments.