Apple updated its App Review Guidelines on 16 October to strengthen protections against nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes, and to crack down on bait-and-switch apps.
Guideline 1.2 now explicitly requires apps to proactively prevent and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery from their platforms. Apps that fail to do so may be removed from the App Store and have their developers terminated from the Apple Developer Program. Guideline 2.5.19 clarifies that apps which misrepresent their purpose during the review process and later add harmful features are also subject to removal and termination. Section 5 of the guidelines has been updated to state that apps containing content related to human trafficking or child sexual abuse material will be removed and blocked from alternative distribution.
“We do not hesitate to remove apps, and terminate the developers behind them, when they violate these guidelines,” Apple said in the release.
Apple also noted that in the last year it prevented over 150,000 apps with safety issues from reaching customers and terminated over 193,000 developer accounts for fraud and abuse.
Why it matters
The changes come as AI-generated nonconsensual imagery becomes more common. In our view, Apple’s emphasis on proactive moderation and termination of bad actors signals an escalation of enforcement. The update follows recent revisions to the Developer Program License Agreement, part of a broader tightening of the rules developers must follow to stay on the App Store.