YouTube, X funnel millions of visits to AI deepfake ‘nudify’ apps, new study shows: Key findings

The generative AI boom has fueled a sprawling ecosystem of nudification or ‘nudify’ apps that are often portrayed as existing in the internet’s darkest corners, but a new report suggests that they are surprisingly easy to discover through mainstream social media platforms such as YouTube and X.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) on Monday, July 13, published a report that looked at the top 10 apps and websites used to make non-consensual explicit deepfakes. The report also focused on how people are finding these apps.

Most nudify apps and websites use generative AI tools to realistically make it look like a person has been stripped of their clothing in an image or video. They are also known as ‘undressing’ or ‘de-clothing’ apps.

As part of the analysis, ISD researchers searched for videos with keywords such as ‘undress app’ or ‘nudify app’ on several social media platforms. They were able to pull up videos that not only reviewed and promoted specific nudify apps, but also contained links to promo codes where users could avail free credits.

Social networks drove more than 5.7 million visits to nudify sites between December 2025 and March 2026, according to the report. The primary driver of this traffic was identified as YouTube, which was responsible for more than 30 per cent of referral traffic (approx. 1.82 million site visits).

Elon Musk-owned X was highlighted as the second-most prominent source of referral traffic to nudify apps and websites, accounting for over 1.3 million visits, as per the report. The researchers also examined how access to nudify apps and websites are priced, finding that most of them allowed users to use AI tools and generate sexually explicit content for as low as $1 (Rs 96) per image.

Despite the low cost of using these platforms, nudify apps and websites are able to rake in massive profits with some of them found to generate as much as $36 million collective revenue every year, according to a report by Wired.

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The findings of the ISD report are significant because they challenge the assumption that nudify apps primarily spread through the fringes of the internet. Instead, they show that a large share of referral traffic comes from popularly used social media platforms like YouTube and X as opposed to lightly moderated communities on platforms like 4chan.

The report also suggests that the guardrails put in place by social media platforms to prevent the dissemination of non-consensual intimate images (NCII), or sexually explicit photos and videos, are far from adequate.

Commenting on YouTube’s policies, which prohibit sexually explicit content, the report reads, “This should logically include nudify websites or tools that generate nonconsensual explicit imagery. However, content violating these policies was easily discoverable and accessible on the platform, effectively turning it into a gateway to nudify websites.”

“It wasn’t just that YouTube was a passive source” of referral traffic. In a lot of these cases, it was facilitating the use of these tools as well,” Melanie Smith, the senior director of research and policy for ISD, was quoted as saying by Wired.

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Smith further noted that YouTube’s policies do not just prohibit posting sexually explicit content, they also prohibit posting links to or advertising for sexually explicit websites. “In theory that should cover nonconsensual imagery and revenge porn, or nude photo leaks, but it doesn’t seem like that’s being enforced comprehensively,” she added.

In response to the ISD report, YouTube spokesperson Boot Bullwinkle was quoted as saying that the company has “strict policies prohibiting content that includes unwanted sexualization, such as nonconsensually shared intimate imagery.” These policies apply both to content on YouTube itself and to external links, and include “altered or synthetic content that realistically simulates nudity,” he said.

What are nudify apps?

The spread of nudify apps has become one of the most troubling consequences of the progress of AI image generators and editing tools. Most of these platforms not only allow users to create AI-generated NCII but go one step further in guiding them through the process.

The most common targets of nudify apps are current and ex-girlfriends as well as relatives such as sisters and cousins, according to the ISD report. The authors of the report further said that the motivations of those who use nudify apps are not necessarily sexual in nature. “A lot of the requests were about getting people fired from jobs and compromising their livelihoods and lives in nefarious ways,” they said.