San Francisco has instructed Apple and Google to eliminate numerous “nudify” applications — software that can digitally manipulate images to undress individuals — from their app marketplaces.

California legislation criminalizes any acts that “knowingly facilitates” or “recklessly aids or abets” the production of non-consensual deepfake adult content. In 2025, California passed additional legislation allowing victims to initiate civil suits against third-party enablers of such content. The city asserts that, despite these established laws, both tech giants have persisted in hosting and profiting from these applications.

“Apple and Google are earning profits from applications that take advantage of women and girls by creating non-consensual intimate deepfakes,” stated San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu in a statement sent to TechCrunch. “While the companies have severed ties with certain problematic applications, Apple and Google are obligated to be proactive and vigilant in preventing sexual exploitation.”

Communications dispatched to Google and Apple by Chiu’s office, which were reviewed by TechCrunch, indicate that the companies have “been made aware” of their involvement in “processing payments for illegal transactions for nearly a year” yet have continued to do so.

The letters emphasize that both organizations have repeatedly been alerted to the presence of these applications. In January and again in April, the Tech Transparency Project released reports and sent correspondences to both entities emphasizing that there were “numerous applications” in their app stores that “offered deepfake NCII [non-consensual intimate images] in return for payments” processed by the companies.

TTP’s April report stated that Google and Apple had deliberately “directed” users towards such applications and referred to both companies as “critical players in the dissemination of AI tools that can convert real individuals into sexualized images.”

Furthermore, Chiu mentioned to Wired that both companies likely accrued “millions of dollars in fees” from applications that provided such functionalities.

Chiu’s office letters caution that Apple and Google might encounter civil penalties for breaching the law and demand that they respond to the city within 28 days.

TechCrunch contacted Apple and Google for their feedback.

Deepfake pornography has predominantly affected female public figures; however, nudify applications enable anyone with a publicly available image to be targeted.