West Virginia sues Apple, says iCloud enabled child abuse sharing

West Virginia Attorney General John B. “JB” McCuskey filed a civil suit on Feb. 19, 2026 in Mason County Circuit Court accusing Apple of “knowingly” allowing images and videos of child sexual abuse to be stored and shared via iCloud and iMessage. The complaint points to a startling contrast in reporting: Apple made 267 reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2023, compared with roughly 1.47 million by Google and more than 30.6 million by Meta, and asks the court for statutory and punitive damages plus injunctive relief to force design and detection changes.

The suit alleges Apple built and maintained a product ecosystem that “facilitates the storage, sharing, and safeguarding of illegal content.” It cites internal company communications, including a 2020 text exchange attributed to an Apple executive that described iCloud as the “greatest platform for distributing child porn,” and claims other messages show executives had “chosen to not know” the problem’s scale.

Technically, the complaint alleges that elements of Apple’s software, including certain encoding and metadata practices, make child sexual abuse material easier to share and that Apple’s use of end-to-end encryption has hampered law enforcement investigations. The state asserts Apple declined to deploy available tools that recognize known abusive material stored on iCloud. The filing seeks court orders requiring Apple to implement effective CSAM detection and safer product designs to prevent further distribution and storage.

McCuskey framed the harm in personal terms. “These images are a permanent record of a child’s trauma, and that child is revictimized every time the material is shared or viewed,” he said in a statement. “This conduct is despicable, and Apple’s inaction is inexcusable.” He told reporters he filed the suit “to demand Apple follow the law, report these images, and stop re-victimizing children by allowing these images to be stored and shared.”

Apple responded that protecting user safety and privacy is central to its work, saying the company uses parental controls and automated features designed to intervene when nudity is detected on children’s devices. A company spokesperson said the firm is “constantly innovating to combat threats to children” and highlighted systems such as Communication Safety, which the company says intervenes when nudity appears in Messages, shared Photos, AirDrop and live FaceTime calls.

The complaint builds on criticism from child-protection groups and survivor advocates that Apple abandoned earlier plans for server-side detection tools. The state’s filing follows a 2024 proposed class action by survivors in California that alleged Apple’s reversal of CSAM detection plans allowed abusive material to proliferate; Apple has moved to dismiss that federal suit, invoking protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The lawsuit could be precedent-setting: the state characterizes it as among the first government-filed suits to target a data storage platform for allegedly enabling distribution of child sexual abuse material. If a court grants injunctive relief, the ruling could compel Apple to change encryption or scanning practices and alter the balance the company has struck between privacy and external access to suspected illegal content. The case will likely test how courts weigh consumer-protection law, platform design choices and the technical trade-offs between privacy and child safety.