West Virginia Sues Apple Over Alleged Failure to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Material
West Virginia's lawsuit alleges Apple filed just 267 child sexual abuse material reports in 2023, far fewer than Google and Meta, and seeks $1.2 billion in damages.
- On Thursday, West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey filed a consumer-protection lawsuit in Mason County accusing Apple of enabling CSAM storage and distribution.
- Apple's 2021 plan to scan images included NeuralHash, Apple's 2021 CSAM-detection model, but the state says Apple prioritized privacy branding and abandoned detection, a choice JB McCuskey calls conscious.
- The complaint points to a 2020 internal message where an Apple executive said `we are the greatest platform for distributing child porn`, citing Reuters data that Apple filed only 267 CSAM reports in 2023 compared to Google’s 1.47 million and Meta’s more than 30.6 million.
- Apple has responded by moving to dismiss, arguing the firm is shielded from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law that provides broad protections to internet companies from lawsuits over content generated by users.
- The suit positions Apple at the center of a wider debate on end-to-end encryption and federal duties to report detected CSAM to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, marking the first government lawsuit of its kind amid 2024 litigation and watchdog findings.
32 Articles
32 Articles
West Virginia sues Apple, accuses tech giant of letting iCloud become hub for child sexual abuse material
West Virginia brought a lawsuit against Apple on Thursday over allegations the big tech giant lets predators easily hide child sexual abuse material in its iCloud storage, marking the first time a state has sued the company over the issue.Attorney General JB McCuskey, who is leading the lawsuit, told Fox News Digital in an interview that Apple is an "outlier in the marketplace" when it comes to cloud-based storage and that the company has long r…
Apple is sued by West Virginia over allegedly allowing child pornography
West Virginia sued Apple on Thursday, saying the company knowingly allowed its iCloud platform to be used to distribute and store child sexual abuse material for years without taking action to stop it. “Preserving the privacy of child predators is absolutely inexcusable,” West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said in a statement. The state alleges Apple violated West Virginia’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act. The lawsuit, filed in Mason…
West Virginia sues Apple, saying iCloud distributed ‘child porn’ | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
West Virginia’s attorney general sued Apple today, accusing the iPhone maker of allowing its iCloud service to become what the company’s own internal communications called the “greatest platform for distributing child porn.” Attorney General JB McCuskey, a Republican, accused Apple of prioritizing user privacy over child safety. His office called the case the first of its kind by a government agency over the distribution of child sexual abuse ma…
Apple Sued by West Virginia Over Allegedly Allowing Child Porn
West Virginia sued Apple on Feb. 19, claiming the company knowingly allowed its iCloud platform to be used to distribute and store child sexual abuse material for years without taking action to stop it. “Preserving the privacy of child predators is absolutely inexcusable,” West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said in a statement. The state alleges Apple violated West Virginia’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act. The lawsuit, filed in Maso…
West Virginia AG sues Apple over alleged child porn distribution through iCloud
A lawsuit filed against Apple Inc. by West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey alleges the company knew its iCloud platform was being used to distribute and store child sexual abuse material and did nothing about it.
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