West Virginia Sues Apple Over Alleged Role in Distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material
– West Virginia Attorney General John “JB” McCuskey filed a lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, alleging the company’s iCloud service has become a platform for the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The lawsuit claims Apple prioritized privacy branding and its own business interests over the safety of children.
The consumer protection action seeks both statutory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief that would compel Apple to implement effective CSAM detection measures, according to a statement released by the Attorney General’s office.
McCuskey accused Apple of lagging behind other major technology companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Dropbox, in proactively combating the spread of CSAM. These companies, the lawsuit alleges, utilize systems like PhotoDNA – a technology developed by Microsoft and Dartmouth College in 2009 – to automatically identify and block images of child exploitation that have already been reported to authorities.
PhotoDNA employs “hashing and matching” techniques to flag known CSAM images, preventing their further dissemination. The lawsuit contends that Apple’s approach has been insufficient in addressing the problem.
In 2021, Apple reportedly tested its own CSAM-detection features designed to automatically identify and remove exploitative images uploaded to iCloud in the United States, and to report them to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. However, the company ultimately abandoned these plans following criticism from privacy advocates.
These advocates expressed concerns that the technology could create a “back door” for government surveillance and potentially be misused to censor other types of content on iOS devices. Apple subsequently stated its efforts have not satisfied a broad array of critics.
The lawsuit arrives as Apple continues to face scrutiny over its data security and privacy practices. In June 2025, a U.S. Judge ruled that Apple must face a consumer lawsuit alleging deceptive practices related to iCloud storage. That case centers on claims that Apple failed to adequately inform customers about how their data was stored and accessed.
According to court documents in that case, Apple defended its policies as necessary to guarantee high levels of security. However, the plaintiffs argued that Apple’s practices were misleading and that customers would have paid less for iCloud subscriptions if they had known their data was not being stored directly on Apple’s servers.
A separate class action lawsuit, settled in March 2022, resulted in Apple agreeing to pay $14.8 million to resolve claims that it wrongfully stored iCloud data on third-party servers between September 16, 2015, and January 31, 2016. Plaintiffs in that case alleged that Apple did not have the infrastructure to support cloud storage at the time and misled customers about where their data was being held.
The West Virginia lawsuit represents a new front in the ongoing debate over the balance between privacy, security, and the responsibility of technology companies to protect children online. The Attorney General’s office has not yet specified the exact amount of damages it is seeking, but indicated it will pursue all available legal remedies to hold Apple accountable.
