Apple updates its App Review Guidelines to more explicitly restrict apps that create nonconsensual, sexually explicit intimate imagery using AI. While the App Store already bans pornography, the changes expand expectations for how developers prevent, filter, and remove AI-generated “nudification” content, including deepfakes made without a person’s consent.
The update also targets deceptive review practices. Apple warns against apps that hide or only reveal harmful functionality after approval—often described as “bait-and-switch.” Apple says apps with offending content or concealed features may be removed from the App Store and that developers could face account termination.
Outlets frame the timing differently: some note the rules come amid public criticism after users used xAI’s Grok earlier this year to generate nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes, including minors. Apple’s post and related coverage emphasize enforcement and added clarity for developers, including additional guidance tied to undisclosed features and provisions extending certain bans to alternative distribution channels.
