{"id":468476,"date":"2026-06-09T14:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/468476\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:11:17","slug":"protesters-target-wwdc-in-call-for-nudify-app-store-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/468476\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters target WWDC in call for &#8216;nudify&#8217; App Store bans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-lede\">Protesters are using the WWDC 2026 opening keynote to call attention to so-called &#8220;nudify&#8221; apps, pushing Apple to remove these apps from its <a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/inside\/app-store\" title=\"App Store\" data-kpt=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">App Store<\/a>.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>At the Cupertino <a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/inside\/apple-park\" title=\"Apple Park\" data-kpt=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple Park<\/a> campus, Apple has welcomed developers and members of the press to watch its <a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/inside\/wwdc\" title=\"WWDC\" data-kpt=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WWDC<\/a> opening keynote. But protesters from UltraViolet, a women&#8217;s advocacy group, are also in attendance with a sign claiming &#8220;Apple is powered by child sexual abuse.&#8221;&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The Verge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/945813\/apple-wwdc-protesters-deepfake-nude-apps-ultraviolet-heat-initiative\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> that Heat Initiative, a group that aims to &#8220;hold tech companies accountable for enabling and profiting from child sexual abuse,&#8221; is also present. Another sign asks incoming Apple CEO John Ternus. &#8220;What will you do?&#8221;&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The sign is in reference to apps, found in the App Store, that can leverage AI abilities to remove a person&#8217;s clothes. All the apps need to get started is a photo.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>One of the most high-profile apps is xAI&#8217;s Grok. Pamphlets shared at the protest note that at least <a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/articles\/26\/01\/28\/moral-low-ground-app-store-is-rife-with-ai-nudify-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">47 nudify apps<\/a> have been found on Apple&#8217;s App Store.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>An unwanted distraction<\/p>\n<p>The protest will be an unwanted distraction, but it&#8217;s one that Apple should perhaps have seen coming. Apps that allow people to create deepfake nudes of others, including minors, have been a huge problem in recent months.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>On the face of it, Apple&#8217;s App Store rules should prevent these kinds of apps from being available on the <a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/inside\/iphone\" title=\"iPhone\" data-kpt=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iPhone<\/a>. But, so far, Grok and other apps that have been misused to &#8220;nudify&#8221; people&#8217;s photos have remained available.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Even worse, there have been reports of some deepfake nonconsensual porn apps being allowed to advertise in the App Store itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters are using the WWDC 2026 opening keynote to call attention to so-called &#8220;nudify&#8221; apps, pushing Apple to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-468476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}