YouTube and X Drive Traffic to Nudify Apps
▼ Summary
– Mainstream social media platforms, despite having strict policies against nonconsensual intimate images, directly refer users to nudify apps and websites.
– A new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that social networks drove over 5.7 million visits to nudify sites between December 2025 and March 2026.
– YouTube was the top referral source with 1.82 million visits, followed by X with over 1.3 million visits, often through videos promoting or linking to the tools.
– The study found that YouTube’s policies against sexually explicit content and links to such sites are not being comprehensively enforced.
– Nudify apps are highly profitable, generating up to $36 million annually, and are used not only for sexual purposes but also to harm targets like getting them fired from jobs.
Most major social media companies maintain strict policies against nonconsensual intimate images (NCII). Yet a new investigation reveals that several platforms are actively funneling users directly to the tools that create such content.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a group focused on extremism and disinformation, released a report Monday examining the digital infrastructure behind so-called “nudify” apps and websites. These tools let anyone digitally strip clothing from photos without the subject’s consent. The study tracked the top ten apps and sites used to generate explicit deepfakes, and traced exactly how users discover them.
The findings upend a common assumption. Most referral traffic to nudify platforms does not originate from fringe, lightly moderated corners of the internet like 4chan. Instead, it flows from mainstream social networks. Between December 2025 and March 2026, social media drove more than 5.7 million visits to nudify sites. YouTube alone accounted for 1.82 million of those visits , over 30 percent of all referrals.
These visits came from searches for terms like “undress app” or “nudify app.” The resulting videos ranged from product reviews and promotions to direct links offering promo codes for free credits. X was the second-largest referrer, sending more than 1.3 million visits to nudify sites.
The report’s authors argue that this activity stands in “direct conflict” with YouTube’s own policies, which forbid sexually explicit material. “This should logically include nudify websites or tools that generate nonconsensual explicit imagery,” the report states. “However, content violating these policies was easily discoverable and accessible on the platform, effectively turning it into a gateway to nudify websites.”
Melanie Smith, ISD’s senior director of research and policy, told WIRED that YouTube was not merely a passive conduit. “It wasn’t just that YouTube was a passive source of referral traffic,” she said. “In a lot of these cases, it was facilitating the use of these tools as well.”
Smith also noted that YouTube’s rules go beyond banning sexually explicit uploads. The platform also prohibits posting links to or advertisements for sexually explicit websites , such as linking to an OnlyFans page. “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 said.
In a statement to WIRED, YouTube spokesperson Boot Bullwinkle said the company has “strict policies prohibiting content that includes unwanted sexualization, such as nonconsensually shared intimate imagery.” He added that these policies apply to content on YouTube itself and to external links, including “altered or synthetic content that realistically simulates nudity.”
The ISD report also examined the pricing and accessibility of nudification tools. Some apps allow users to generate sexually explicit images for as little as $1 per image. Despite the low cost to users, these platforms can be extremely profitable. A recent WIRED investigation found that the collective revenue of nudify apps may reach as high as $36 million per year.
The study identified common targets of these tools: current and ex-girlfriends, and disturbingly, relatives such as sisters and cousins. The authors were also surprised by the motivations behind many requests. “A lot of the requests were about getting people fired from jobs and compromising their livelihoods and lives in nefarious ways,” Smith said. The intent was often not even “sexual in nature.”
Nudify apps have become a persistent problem across social media. In some cases, platforms not only allow AI-generated explicit images to spread but actively help people create them.
(Source: Wired)
