Charleston, WV (WOAY) Attorney General JB McCuskey has filed a lawsuit against Apple.
In the media release announcing the lawsuit, the Attorney General accuses the company of knowingly allowing its iCloud platform to store and distribute child sexual abuse material and failing to take action to stop it.
The complaint claims Apple acknowledged its platform had become a major vehicle for distributing child exploitation material, but chose not to implement widely used detection tools, citing user privacy concerns.
Federal law requires U.S.-based technology companies to report detected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
According to the lawsuit, Apple made 267 reports in 2023.
By comparison, Google filed more than 1.47 million reports, and Meta filed more than 30.6 million.
The Attorney General argues Apple cannot claim to be a passive platform because it has end-to-end control over its hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure systems.
The state says the entire platform was designed, built, and profited from by the company.
The consumer protection lawsuit was filed in Mason County Circuit Court.
The lawsuit is believed to be the first of its kind brought by a governmental agency against Apple over the alleged distribution of child sexual abuse material.
The Attorney General’s Office is seeking statutory and punitive damages, along with a court order requiring Apple to implement detection measures and adopt safer product design.
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