Apple updated its App Review Guidelines today with a series of changes meant to strengthen protections against harmful content and deceptive app review practices. Here are the details.
A bit of context
Over the past year alone, there has been no shortage of reports and controversies involving apps that skirt Apple’s App Review Guidelines and expose users, including minors, to harmful or inappropriate content.
In January, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) identified dozens of AI-powered “nudify” apps on the App Store.
The group published a follow-up investigation in April, revealing that Apple’s App Store search suggestions and advertisements were also directing users to such apps. In July, San Francisco officials ordered Apple to remove eight apps capable of generating nonconsensual intimate imagery.
Also in July, a 9to5Mac investigation uncovered dozens of apps disguising gambling platforms as simple games and utilities to evade App Store review, many of which were available to children.
These apps behaved as advertised when accessed from outside Brazil, but revealed hidden betting platforms when opened from Brazilian IP addresses.
And then there was the Grok controversy, which saw Elon Musk’s AI chatbot used to generate nonconsensual sexualized images of women and minors, prompting lawmakers and advocacy groups to call on Apple to remove X and Grok from the App Store. Apple later confirmed that it had privately warned xAI that Grok could be removed unless the company addressed the issue.
Today, Apple updated its App Review Guidelines in an attempt to address problems such as these.
Apple’s updated App Review Guidelines
Under Section 1.2, which covers user-generated content, the guidelines now read (changes in bold):
Apps that enable users to create, generate, upload, share, or otherwise contribute content present particular challenges, including intellectual property infringement, nonconsensual intimate imagery, and anonymous bullying.
Apple’s new terms add that “Developers who fail to implement appropriate safeguards or fail to remediate identified violations after notice may be considered in violation of the Developer Code of Conduct.”
In another particularly important change, Apple strengthened its rules against so-called ‘bait-and-switch’ apps, which “misrepresent their purpose during review and only reveal harmful capabilities — such as “nudification” — after approval,” as the company puts it.
The newly created section 2.5.19 reads:
Don’t include any hidden, dormant, or undocumented features in your app; your app’s functionality should be clear to end users and App Review. Attempting to hide undocumented features in your app binary, such as through code obfuscation or other methods, is grounds for removal of your app from the App Store and termination of your developer account.
While the prohibition on hidden functionality was already present in Section 2.3.1, Apple has now made the rule more explicit, specifically calling out code obfuscation and emphasizing that violations can lead to an app’s removal and the termination of the developer’s account.
Finally, under Section 5 (Legal), Apple also strengthened its language around apps that facilitate human trafficking or the exploitation of children, explicitly stating that they “will be removed from the App Store and blocked from alternative distribution.”
To read Apple’s updated App Review Guidelines, follow this link.