Tech Transparency Project

Both Apple and Google emphasize user safety as a key pillar of their review processes.

But their repeated failure to reject “nudify” apps—before they were downloaded millions of times—harms not just users, but an unknown number of victims who have had their image sexualized.

Moral low ground: App Store is rife with AI 'nudify' apps While Grok faced most of the heat in the AI porn backlash, Apple isn't doing itself any favors by allowing dozens of "nudify" apps to stay in the App Store.

Writing about this “moral low ground,” @malcolmowen.bsky.social points out that "The failure doesn't just stop at the developer, either, as the apps had to pass the App Store Review Process and be approved before being allowed in the App Store in the first place."

Update: After TTP informed Apple and Google of the dozens of “nudify” apps in their stores, both companies removed many of them. Apple took down 27, Google 31.

But the swift takedown—and tacit admission the apps broke store rules—raises serious questions about their approval processes.

Apple, Google host dozens of AI ‘nudify’ apps like Grok, report finds A tech watchdog organization found 55 nudify apps on Google Play and 47 in the Apple App Store.

After CNBC and @ttp-updates.bsky.social contacted Apple and Google about dozens of nudify apps on their respective app stores, the two companies removed dozens of these services from their platforms, but several remain www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/a... Check out this report by @lolavkm.bsky.social

TTP - Nudify Apps Widely Available in Apple and Google App Stores Apple and Google ban apps that create sexualized images. But both companies offer dozens of apps that can strip the clothes off people.

TTP’s findings show that Google and Apple have failed to keep pace with the spread of nonconsensual AI deepfake apps. While both companies say they're dedicated to ensuring user safety, this obvious gap in policy enforcement calls that claim into question.

Several apps were also created by developers based in China. China-based apps raise privacy and security concerns for Americans because Chinese companies can be forced to share user data with the Chinese government under the country’s national security laws.

Notably, when TTP searched “nudify” in the Apple App Store, Grok was the first organic result.

Above it, Apple served an ad for Collart—one of the nudify apps TTP tested, and one that Apple removed after being told of TTP's findings. But only after it took its ad money.

Testing Swapify, TTP uploaded an image of a clothed woman sitting in a coffee shop and swapped the woman’s face onto a video of a woman on a park bench taking her top off. The app generated a preview of the new video but required a premium subscription to view it in full.

TTP also tested a number of face swap apps, including one called Swapify— which AppMagic says has been downloaded more than 500,000 times and generated more than $100,000 in revenue.

TTP also tested WonderSnap, which calls itself an AI twerk video generator. After uploading the image, TTP prompted the app to render the woman dancing without a top. The resulting five-second video depicts the woman removing her sweater and exposing her bare chest.

One popular app TTP tested was DreamFace, which turns “photos, text, and voice" prompts into videos. TTP uploaded an image of a clothed woman and asked for a video of her "taking their top off and dancing. They are wearing nothing underneath.”

The app delivered exactly that.

The apps identified by TTP fell into two categories: apps that use AI to generate videos or images based on a user prompt, and “face swap” apps that use AI to superimpose the face of one person onto the body of another. TTP only used the free features available on each app.

Apple prohibits apps that produce content that is “offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, in exceptionally poor taste, or just plain creepy,” including “overtly sexual or pornographic material.”

The Google Play Store prohibits “depictions of sexual nudity, or sexually suggestive poses in which the subject is nude” or “minimally clothed,” and specifically bans apps “that claim to undress people or see through clothing.”

Some of the apps were even approved for children, with Apple listing apps for kids as young as 4+ or 9+ and Google listing for ages 13+. Yet all of them appear to be in direct violation of company policy—even for adult users.

The apps identified by TTP have been collectively downloaded more than 705 million times worldwide and generated $117 million in revenue, according to AppMagic. Because Google and Apple take a cut of that revenue, they are directly profiting from the activity of these apps.

TTP found 55 apps in the Google Play Store and 47 in the Apple App Store that let users make nonconsensual, sexualized images of women. Starting with images of clothed, AI-generated women, TTP used the apps to entirely or partially remove their clothes.

TTP - Nudify Apps Widely Available in Apple and Google App Stores Apple and Google ban apps that create sexualized images. But both companies offer dozens of apps that can strip the clothes off people.

NEW: Apple and Google ban apps that create sexualized images.

But a new TTP report found dozens of “nudify” apps in the companies’ stores that can digitally remove the clothes from women, rendering them naked or in scant clothing.

TTP - Instagram Points Teen Users to Brutal Fight Videos Meta says its ‘Instagram Teen Accounts’ protect minors from inappropriate content, including people fighting. But there’s a big hashtag loophole.

TTP’s report showed that a 15-year-old boy using an Instagram Teen Account could find brutal fighting videos in just a few clicks without encountering any resistance from the platform, despite a policy that promised to shield teens from such content.

As Meta touts a new policy today to keep Teen Accounts safe, let’s not forget that even with its purported tight controls, harmful content still finds its way through.

A TTP report last year found that this even included extremely violent fight content.

TTP - U.S.-Sanctioned Firms Find Opening in Apple and Google App Stores Apple and Google say they comply with U.S. sanctions. But an array of sanctioned companies, many from Russia and China, offer apps through their app stores.

TTP’s discovery of apps tied to sanctioned entities was another example of Apple and Google's failure to enforce their own policies. When informed, they removed many of the apps, but offered no explanation for their longstanding presence in the stores.

Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards Once you’ve traded your principles for proximity to power, do you even run your own company?

When Grok/X very publicly rolled out a feature allowing users to undress images of women and children, many expected it would be pulled from app stores due to clear violations of Apple and Google policy. Yet no action was taken.

On Apple and Google’s failure to police their own app store rules, @lopatto.bsky.social notes that Apple’s promise to “protect” users is its basis for justifying its monopolistic control of the store.

Yet Apple still fails, as TTP's recent report on apps for sanctioned entities demonstrated.

TTP - Facebook Boogaloo Crackdown Falls Short as Extremists Return Facebook saw its first surge of anti-government “boogaloo bois” in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Despite a Facebook ban, they’re creeping back on the platform.

Later that year, TTP found that—years after Facebook’s first supposed crackdown—Boogaloo groups were returning to the platform. Researchers documented boogaloo group members explicitly stating that they preferred using Facebook over other platforms. www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/fac...

Facebook sued over death of federal officer A lawsuit filed on behalf of the officer's sister argues Facebook's recommendation system played a part in radicalizing the people accused in the killing.

It’s hard to imagine these crimes occurring if Facebook hadn’t failed to promptly crack down.

In 2022, the sister of the slain officer sued Facebook, saying its recommendation algorithms contributed to the radicalization that led to his death. www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...

TTP - Facebook’s Boogaloo Problem: A Record of Failure Facebook has announced multiple crackdowns on anti-government extremists. But the company’s slow and ineffective response has allowed the movement to persist on its platform.

Justus stated that he met Carrillo through Facebook. Carillo was a member of a Facebook group called “BoojieBastards: The Armory”, which TTP named in its April 2020 report. Facebook didn’t take down the group until June 17, only after the murder. www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/fac...

Ninth Circuit upholds conviction in Oakland courthouse murder tied to Boogaloo Bois U.S. Circuit Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote that the lower court did not err when admitting social media posts into evidence.

The judge ruled that Robert Justus' Facebook posts showing "advocacy for violence and physical attacks of law enforcement and the courts made it more probable that he intentionally aided [co-defendant Steven Carrillo] in the shooting of the officers.” www.courthousenews.com/ninth-circui...

A judge rejected the appeal of an anti-government extremist who argued that his "boogaloo boi" Facebook activity shouldn't have been used to convict him in the 2020 killing of a federal officer.

As TTP research showed, the boogaloo movement is inextricably linked to such activity.

TTP - U.S.-Sanctioned Firms Find Opening in Apple and Google App Stores Apple and Google say they comply with U.S. sanctions. But an array of sanctioned companies, many from Russia and China, offer apps through their app stores.

As part of a settlement with the Treasury Department, Apple promised to take steps to improve its sanctions screening tools.

Yet, TTP was able to identify these apps through public searches, suggesting Apple is falling short six years later.

Apple has been fined before by the U.S. government for failing to guard against sanctions violations in the App Store, over a case involving an app linked to a sanctioned Slovenian drug trafficker in 2019.