regulation · October 16, 2026
By Joe Jurczyk, Editor
Apple updates App Review Guidelines to cover AI-generated nonconsensual intimate imagery and bait-and-switch apps
Apple revised its App Review Guidelines on October 16. Per Apple, Guideline 1.2 content-moderation requirements now explicitly cover nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated using AI tools, which apps must proactively prevent and remove. A new Guideline 2.5.19 prohibits apps that reveal harmful capabilities such as "nudification" only after approval.
On October 16, 2026, Apple published updated App Review Guidelines. Apple's accompanying post, "Strengthening App Review Guidelines against nonconsensual intimate imagery and bait-and-switch apps," says the content-moderation requirements in Guideline 1.2 now explicitly cover nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated using AI tools, as content that apps must proactively prevent and remove from their platforms. Apple says this includes apps that generate nudity or sexually explicit imagery, such as "nudification" apps that create sexually explicit images of real individuals without their consent.
Apple also added Guideline 2.5.19, which it describes as clarifying long-standing policy on hidden, dormant, or undocumented features, formerly covered in Guideline 2.3.1. Per Apple's post, apps that reveal harmful capabilities such as "nudification" only after approval, a tactic it calls "bait-and-switch," are prohibited. Apple's update also notes a potential Developer Code of Conduct violation for failing to implement appropriate safeguards or remediating violations after notice.
This is a platform policy change rather than a law, and it concerns AI-generated depictions of real people. For full details, read the original posts on Apple Developer News.