San Francisco Orders Apple and Google to Nuke AI Nudification Apps

TechCrunch reports that San Francisco has issued formal demands to Apple and Google to remove so-called nudify apps from their respective app stores — AI tools that generate fake nude images of real people from ordinary photographs.

The demands are not a simple policy request. According to TechCrunch, San Francisco is acting under newly-granted regulatory authority over app distribution within city limits, a legal posture that tests whether a local government can compel platform content decisions that federal regulators and the companies themselves have resisted making. The specific statute or ordinance enabling this authority is not detailed in the available reporting.

If the demands hold up legally, the implications extend well beyond San Francisco. App store moderation has long been treated as a private-platform decision. A successful municipal mandate would create a template — and an incentive — for other jurisdictions to publish their own lists of prohibited apps, fragmenting app store availability by geography in ways the tech industry has not previously navigated.

Read the full story at TechCrunch