Generative AI porn apps targeted in App Review Guidelines update

Apple has updated the App Review Guidelines once more, in a crackdown on apps creating non-consensual adult imagery that are sold using bait-and-switch tactics to pass the review process.

While Apple has a fairly robust App Store Review process and guidelines to match, not everything that makes it through the examination does so legitimately. In some cases, developers use deceitful tactics to hide an app's true nature so it can get into the App Store, despite having features that are against the rules.

Bait-and-switch apps that present as one thing to the App Store but can be something quite different aren't new. This behavior has been used by scam and malicious apps, as well as, in one instance, Russian banks.

In the latest crackdown, Apple's Developer site outlines why a set of changes have been made to the App Review Guidelines. The news post, issued late on October 16, explains it is a change against "nonconsensual intimate imagery and bait-and-switch apps."

Apps with pornographic material have long been prohibited by the App Store, including those that generate sexually explicit images. This includes "nudification" apps that generate explicit images of real people using photos supplied by the user, without the subject's consent.

In July, Apple was ordered to remove eight such iPhone apps from the App Store by the city of San Francisco.

Apps with user-generated content also have a requirement to filter objectionable material, including allowing users to report such content, and to allow users to block accounts.

As part of the changes, Apple adds that apps with hidden or undocumented features are also not allowed on the App Store. This includes apps that "misrepresent their purpose during review, and only reveal their harmful capabilities after it's approved.

App Store Review changes

1.2: Content moderation requirements now say that apps should proactively prevent or remove content with non-consensual intimate imagery, including those made using AI generation tools.

Rule 2.5.19 clarifies Apple's stance on banning apps with bait-and-switch tactics affecting the App Store Review process.

Though Apple has long prevented apps that enable human trafficking or the exploitation of children in the App Store, Section 5 clarifies the stance. Apps found to facilitate these actions will be removed from the App Store and blocked from "alternative distribution."