Asleep at the Switch: Apple and Google Offered 400+ Chinese Apps for Generating AI Deepfake Porn

03 Nov 2026, 18:03 by Lucas Nolan · Breitbart

An investigation has uncovered a network of more than 400 connected domains and apps linked to Chinese-language developers that offer tools for generating sexually explicit AI deepfake images and videos. The apps were available on the app stores of both Apple and Google.

Wired reports that the apps looked harmless enough: pet portrait generators, language tutoring services, AI workout coaches. But behind that front sat a hidden web interface where users could upload photos and generate sexually explicit deepfakes, including scene templates labeled “bedroom rape” and one depicting a man holding a knife to a woman’s neck. These vile apps are often referred to by names like “Nudify” because they are used for AI-generated porn of real people.

The network surfaced during an investigation into thousands of explicit deepfake video ads running on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms. Some ads previously reported by Wired contained AI-generated child sexual abuse material, including images of real children and a member of a European royal family. The ads reached tens of thousands of people and prompted regulatory investigations in multiple countries. Many linked directly to apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, where users paid through Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Researchers believe the network has run for about a year, at times publishing dozens of new apps per week. Paul Bouchaud, lead researcher at AI Forensics, reverse engineered the apps and their associated websites. “This is an organized, commercially run operation: One operator behind hundreds of disposable apps and domains, cloaked to pass App Store review and pushed through tens of thousands of Meta ads under fake payer names,” Bouchaud said.

Each app download triggers a server call carrying data such as location, language and a unique identifier, which determines whether the user sees an explicit or non-explicit version of the app. One apparent trigger for the explicit version is downloading the app immediately after clicking a Meta ad. The hidden explicit interface appears as a blank black screen behind a URL containing the word “risk,” and includes dozens of pornographic deepfake templates, a system for purchasing “diamonds” to generate content, and links to other social accounts for contacting the developer. A hidden JavaScript bundle embedded in the site’s code lists every domain and app in the network, along with package details, encryption keys and Facebook ad trackers.

Maël Le Touz, a staff threat researcher at Infoblox, identified almost 500 linked domains. Those domains began appearing in late 2025 and spiked this spring, with roughly 30 new nudify apps or websites registering weekly at the network’s peak, according to Bouchaud. As of September, 27 of the apps were still live on Google Play, with combined downloads exceeding 350,000. Many carried ratings suggesting they were suitable for all ages, Bouchaud’s research found. One app, DiffAI, created in December 2025, had been downloaded more than 100,000 times before it was removed from the Play Store shortly before Wired contacted Google. Google did not respond to a request for comment but had already removed most of the apps. Portions of the network had earlier been reported by Danish journalists in September. Apple removed 19 apps, including Viefur, after Wired shared the list of domains, and said it has suspended tens of thousands of apps over the past year for “bait-and-switch” tactics while updating App Store rules to restrict nudify tools.

Investigators found the network relies exclusively on Chinese hosting, with code written in Chinese and Chinese-language comments throughout. Le Touz noted the explicit ad videos carry watermarks from Chinese-language video editing software. The operators used generic privacy policies, free Gmail and Outlook addresses, and obscure developer names to hide their identities, along with fake advertiser names on Meta such as “Draftmondcreldbro Duhustepre” and “Swaldmungsha Glasirdcroldshold,” attached to pages with no real followers. Since the start of this year, Bouchaud’s research has tied tens of thousands of explicit deepfake ads on Meta’s platforms to the network. Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, was the first to uncover ads showing explicit deepfake depictions of minors.

In his New York Times bestseller, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, Breitbart News social media director and author Wynton Hall explains that artificial intelligence is “being used to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM).”

“For example, AI tools can rapidly and easily create ‘deepfakes’ by studying real photographs of abused children to generate new images showing those children in sexual positions. This involves overlaying the face of one person on the body of another,” Hall writes. Additionally, “AI can combine data from photographs of both abused and non-abused children to animate new and realistic sexualized images of children who do not exist, but who may resemble actual children,” the author adds. Hall also notes in CODE RED that creating these images is easier than ever, as anyone can download the AI tools to their computer and simply type up a short description of what they want to see.