Apple updates App Store rules on nonconsensual AI imagery and hidden app features
Apple has made its App Store rules more explicit about nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated images, and apps that conceal features during review.
Apple updated its App Store review guidelines on October 16 to explicitly address nonconsensual intimate imagery, including images generated by AI. The rules require apps to prevent and remove that content, giving Apple a clearer basis to act against developers whose safeguards fall short.
In its developer announcement, Apple said pornographic material was already prohibited, including apps that generate sexually explicit images of real people without their consent. The update makes that restriction explicit in the rules for apps that host user-generated content; it does not introduce the underlying ban for the first time.
What Apple requires from apps hosting user content
Section 1.2 now specifically covers nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated imagery, as content that apps must proactively prevent and remove. Apple said developers who fail to put adequate safeguards in place, or fail to fix violations after notice, risk breaching its Developer Code of Conduct and losing their place in the App Store.
The Verge reported that the changes follow criticism of Apple after users of X’s Grok generated nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes, including images involving minors. Apple did not remove X or Grok from the App Store, The Verge reported, though the company told senators it had threatened to remove Grok. That earlier dispute provides context for the new wording; Apple has not announced an enforcement action against either app under the updated guidelines.
Rules for concealed features and alternative distribution
Apple also clarified Section 2.5.19, which prohibits developers from presenting one version of an app for review and then changing what it does after approval. Its example is adding features that were absent from the version submitted to App Review. Apps found doing this can be removed from the App Store, and their developers can be removed from the Apple Developer Program.
A separate update to Section 5 says apps containing content that facilitates human trafficking or the exploitation of children will be removed from the App Store and blocked from alternative distribution. Apple described this as a clarification of an existing prohibition, extending its stated response beyond removal from its own store.
Apple said it prevented more than 150,000 apps with safety issues from reaching customers last year and terminated more than 193,000 developer accounts for fraud and abuse. It said some malicious actors conceal harmful content until after an app is approved, a practice addressed by the clarified rule on features added after review.
Read in depth: AI
YouTube Music starts labeling songs made with generative AI
Listeners can tap a label on the player page to see how AI contributed to a track. YouTube says it will use partner disclosures and its own detection tools.
Six parents describe tighter rules for children’s social media and AI use
Guardian interviews show how six families are setting limits on social media and AI. A separate U.S. survey shows parents’ views vary sharply by how teens use chatbots.
Sources and context
- Apple’s updated App Store rules go after ‘nudify’ AI appsThe Verge
- Strengthening App Review Guidelines against nonconsensual intimate imagery and bait-and-switch appsApple Developer
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.