Teen sues to destroy the nudify app that left her in constant fear

One of the earliest teen victims bullied by fake nudes has sued to destroy the app she said left her living in “constant fear.”

In her complaint, the teen—who was granted anonymity as a 17-year-old minor—accused ClothOff of intentionally making it easy to generate and distribute child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), as well as nonconsensual intimate images (NCII) of adults. She also alleged that the social media network Telegram helps promote ClothOff through automated bots that have attracted hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

ClothOff’s operation, the teen alleged, goes beyond promoting a single app, which can be used for free to turn an ordinary Instagram photo into CSAM or NCII in “three clicks.”

It’s affiliated with at least 10 other services that can be used to undress images of “anyone,” using the same technology, which ClothOff claims is “always improving.” And “exacerbating the reach and harm of ClothOff’s illegal and predatory activities,” developers and companies can directly access that technology through an API that the teen victim alleged “allows users to create private CSAM and NCII,” including “the most extreme kinds of content while better evading detection.”

“Because the API’s code is easy to integrate, any website, application, or bot can easily integrate it to mass-produce and distribute CSAM and NCII of adults and minors without oversight,” the complaint said, while noting that ClothOff has also inspired “multiple copycat” websites and apps.

On average, ClothOff and its apps generate 200,000 images daily, the complaint said, and have reached at least 27 million visitors since launching. For users seeking “premium content,” ClothOff accepts credit card or cryptocurrency payments between $2 and $40, with the “sole purpose” of profiting off of “enticing users to easily, quickly, and anonymously obtain CSAM and NCII of identifiable individuals that are nearly indistinguishable from real photos,” the complaint alleged.