West Virginia Sues Apple Over iCloud Child Safety Breaches

A West Virginia attorney general filed a lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit states that the iPhone-maker knowingly allowed its iCloud platform to be used to distribute and store child sexual abuse material for years.

Attorney General JB McCuskey accused Apple of prioritising user privacy over child safety while choosing not to act. “Since Apple has so far refused to police themselves and do the morally right thing, I am filing this lawsuit to demand Apple follow the law, report these images, and stop re-victimising children by allowing these images to be stored and shared,” he stated.

The lawsuit cited an internal communication by Apple where the company billed itself as the greatest platform for distributing child porn. It alleges that instead of implementing industry-standard detection tools used by peers such as Google or Meta Platforms, Apple repeatedly shirked its responsibility to protect children under the guise of user privacy.

According to federal law, all US-based technology companies are required to report detected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In 2023, Apple made 267 such reports, while Google filed 1.47 million and Meta filed more than 30.6 million.

The complaint states that because Apple maintains end-to-end control over its hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure, it cannot claim to be an unknowing, passive conduit of child sexual abuse material. “Apple designed, built, and profited from the very system it allowed to be weaponised against children,” a press release from McCuskey’s office stated. The release also stated the consumer protection complaint is the first lawsuit of its kind brought by a government agency against Apple over child sexual abuse material.