San Francisco's city attorney just ordered Apple and Google to yank dozens of AI "nudify" apps from their app stores — software that strips women bare in photos without their consent — after the companies spent nearly a year pocketing fees from the exploitation.

The move exposes the familiar Big Tech playbook: platform degeneracy, collect the revenue, and only act when legal liability outweighs the profit. Both companies had formal notice since at least January that their stores were hawking deepfake pornography tools. They kept processing payments anyway.

City Attorney David Chiu sent cease-and-desist letters to both companies demanding removal of at least 13 apps that generate nonconsensual intimate deepfakes. "Apple and Google are profiting off apps that exploit women and girls by generating nonconsensual intimate deepfakes," Chiu said in a statement reported by TechCrunch. "While the companies cut ties with some problematic apps, Apple and Google have a responsibility to be proactive and vigilant to prevent sexual abuse."

Chiu told Wired the companies likely made "millions of dollars in fees" from the apps. The letters from his office, viewed by TechCrunch, state that both companies have "been on notice" for "processing payments for illegal purchases for almost a year" — and continued doing it.

The Tech Transparency Project flagged the problem twice. Reports in January and April identified "dozens of apps" across both stores that "sold deepfake NCII [non-consensual intimate images] in exchange for payments" processed by Apple and Google. The April report said both companies intentionally "steered" users toward the apps and called them "key participants in the spread of AI tools that can turn real people into sexualized images."

California law criminalizes activity that "knowingly facilitates" or "recklessly aids and abets" the creation of nonconsensual deepfake pornography. A 2025 law also lets victims pursue civil claims against third-party facilitators. The letters warn Apple and Google could face civil penalties and demand they contact the city within 28 days.

TechCrunch reports both companies have been "repeatedly warned" they were hosting these apps. The Verge, which also covered the story, framed it narrowly around the 13 apps named in the cease-and-desist and forwarded readers to Wired for details — burying the money angle and the months of prior warnings that both outlets' reporting makes clear.

Neither Apple nor Google responded to requests for comment, according to TechCrunch.

The pattern is plain: Big Tech doesn't police its platforms out of conscience. It polices them when the legal bills threaten to exceed the ad revenue. These companies built payment infrastructure for apps designed to violate women, collected their cut, and looked the other way until a city attorney put it in writing. The question isn't why San Francisco acted. It's why it took this long — and what else is still on those shelves.