West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey announced Thursday that West Virginia is suing Apple Inc. over its alleged role in distributing child sexual abuse material.
The lawsuit claims Apple knowingly allowed its iCloud platform to be used to store and share the material and failed to adopt industry-standard detection tools, citing user privacy. McCuskey says federal law requires companies to report detected cases to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, noting Apple filed 267 reports in 2023 compared with far higher numbers from competitors.
Filed in Mason County Circuit Court, the suit seeks damages and a court order requiring stronger detection measures.