YouTube and X Have Become ‘Gateways’ to Nudify Apps

There's a strange gap between what social platforms say they ban and what their own search bars turn up. A new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, published Monday, dug into the ecosystem around "nudify" apps and websites — tools that let anyone digitally strip clothes off a photo without the subject's consent. The researchers expected shady corners of the internet to be doing the heavy lifting. Instead, they found the biggest traffic source was YouTube.

Between December 2025 and March 2026, social networks sent more than 5.7 million visits to the top ten nudify sites and apps the study tracked. YouTube alone accounted for 1.82 million of those visits, over 30 percent of all referral traffic. People searching terms like "undress app" or "nudify app" landed on videos that reviewed the tools, promoted them outright, or handed out promo codes for free credits. X came in second, driving more than 1.3 million visits of its own.

What makes this awkward for YouTube specifically is that its rules already cover this. The platform bans sexually explicit content, and separately bans linking to or advertising sexually explicit sites — the kind of rule meant to stop people pointing viewers toward an OnlyFans page. Melanie Smith, ISD's senior director of research and policy, says that policy should logically extend to nonconsensual imagery and revenge porn too. It just doesn't seem to be enforced that way. And she's careful to note YouTube wasn't merely a passive conduit here — in plenty of cases, the platform was actively helping people figure out how to use these tools, not just hosting a stray link to them.

YouTube's response, from spokesperson Boot Bullwinkle, insists the company has strict rules against unwanted sexualization, including nonconsensually shared intimate imagery, and that those rules apply to external links and to synthetic content simulating nudity too. Whether that squares with 1.82 million referral visits is a question the report leaves hanging.

The rest of the findings are grim in their own way. Some of these apps charge as little as $1 per generated image, and a separate WIRED report estimated the industry could be pulling in as much as $36 million a year collectively. ISD found common targets include current and ex-girlfriends, but also relatives — sisters, cousins. And Smith says the motive isn't always sexual at all; some requests were aimed at getting someone fired or otherwise wrecking their life, which is its own disturbing wrinkle on a technology already built for harm.