Apple expands App Store review to remove AI-generated deepfake content

Huoxing Finance reports that Apple has announced an expansion of its App Store review guidelines to include AI-generated non-consensual intimate images under regulation. The platform previously prohibited explicit content, and the new rules require developers to proactively prevent and remove AI-generated deepfake content; applications failing to take effective action will be forcibly removed. Updated Section 1.2 specifically mentions AI content creation apps and names controversial products such as Grok. Previously, users reported that xAI’s Grok had been used to generate nude and sexually suggestive deepfake images. Earlier this year, Apple warned xAI that Grok would be removed from the App Store if such content were allowed to spread; following this, xAI implemented security measures, and the updated version was subsequently approved. The newly added Section 2.5.19 targets so-called “bait-and-switch” practices: developers who conceal new features or modules outside the submitted version for review—particularly enabling harmful functions such as “clothing removal” only after approval—may be removed from both the App Store and the Apple Developer Program. Updates to Section 5 also extend the prohibition of apps facilitating human trafficking or child exploitation to alternative app distribution channels. Apple states that developers violating these guidelines will have their apps removed and their developer privileges terminated.