A recent investigation from the Tech Transparency Project revealed how easy it is for young teens to find and download ‘nudify’ apps in both the Apple and Google app stores. According to the report, test accounts set up as 13-year-old boys had access to a total of 135 such nudify apps, which have been downloaded 5.5 billion times and have made your companies a total of $3.9 billion in revenue.
Put simply: You are profiting from not just sexual abuse, but child sexual abuse. And you are enabling what is arguably the largest child sex crime spree in history. A few policy changes do not equal tangible change.
We were heartened to see Apple tighten its developer guidelines in response to the report in an effort to mitigate harms created by ‘nudify’ apps and children’s access to them, just as we were heartened to see Google Play Store ban certain keywords that surfaced ‘nudify’ apps in June. But these abusive apps--apps that you have collectively made billions of dollars on--were already technically in violation of your policies. That’s why the public deserves more than these announced policy changes; we deserve to know if and how they’re actually being implemented. Specifically, we demand to know the following from both of your companies:
- Real transparency into how the company evaluates apps and decides which ones should be approved, and which ones should be removed and banned. Do you test features within the apps or just basic versions? Do you test what’s behind a paywall? Do you test with the app store set at different ages? And do you test only once or at multiple stages?
- Clarity on what your company considers "nudification” (the term used in Apple’s policy) and “non-consensual sexual content, deepfakes, or sexually exploitative material” (the terms used in Google’s policy). For example, are lingerie or bikini photos and videos considered “nonconsensual intimate imagery” under your companies’ respective policies? Users and developers deserve to know what is considered “acceptable”.
- Restitution for survivors of deepfake image abuse with profits made from “nudify” apps. When you decide to remove a “nudify” app from your store, what happens to the money the company has already made from the violative content? We urge the company to use these funds to provide restitution for survivors and to support the fight against sexual deepfake abuse.
- Publicly reporting the accounts and developers removed for violating the “nudify” and “undressing” app ban. The public--especially parents, schools, and advocates--deserve full transparency about how well your policies are working. Releasing a monthly report of the exact apps removed and the developers who built those apps is crucial for understanding policy efficacy. It would also work as a deterrent for developers.
As a coalition of women, survivors, parents, and allies, we are watching closely, and we will not stop fighting until your app stores are free from these abusive products hurting women and children en masse.