Apple tightens App Store rules on AI-generated intimate imagery

Apple updated its App Review Guidelines on 16 October. The content moderation rules in guideline 1.2 now explicitly cover nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated using AI tools, as content apps must proactively prevent and remove; developers who lack adequate safeguards, or don't fix violations after notice, risk breaching the Developer Code of Conduct and being removed from the App Store. A new guideline, 2.5.19, restates Apple's ban on apps that misrepresent what they do during review and change after approval, such as apps that only reveal "nudification" features later; those apps face removal from the App Store and from the Apple Developer Program. Section 5 now says apps that facilitate human trafficking or child exploitation will also be blocked from alternative distribution.

What it means for business: developers of AI image or content-creation apps on Apple platforms need working safeguards to prevent and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, or they risk losing App Store access.