Hypocrisy in Silicon Valley: Why Apple and Google Ignore X’s Deepfake Crisis

The double standard of Big Tech moderation is under fire. In a scathing critique, recent reports highlight how X (formerly Twitter) has rolled out a feature that facilitates non-consensual deepfake pornography, seemingly bypassing the strict app store guidelines enforced by Apple and Google.

Both tech giants maintain policies that explicitly ban sexual violence and non-consensual sexual content. However, despite X’s algorithm actively amplifying AI-generated explicit images of real people, neither Apple CEO Tim Cook nor Google CEO Sundar Pichai has moved to pull the app from their respective platforms.

This inaction raises a difficult question: Why are the leaders willing to ban smaller apps for minor infractions but remain cowards when it comes to holding a major platform accountable? By refusing to enforce their own rules against X, Cook and Pichai are effectively complicit in the platform’s descent into toxicity, prioritizing business relationships over user safety and the ethical standards they claim to uphold.