West Virginia Sues Apple Over Child Sex Abuse Material (1)

Feb. 19, 2026, 4:04 PM UTCUpdated: Feb. 19, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

West Virginia sued Apple Inc. Thursday, alleging it has knowingly allowed users to store and distribute child sexual abuse material on its iCloud platform.

Apple “made specific design choices that recklessly and foreseeably enabled illegal conduct related to CSAM,” state Attorney General John McCuskey alleged in a complaint filed in West Virginia Circuit Court. Its iCloud “contains material design advantages” for individuals to host and share child sex abuse material, the suit alleges.

Apple’s iCloud allows users to upload and store images and other media that are accessible across devices and to others through shared links or access permissions, the ...

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