A US federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action accusing Apple of failing to stop child sexual abuse material from being stored and shared through iCloud. The plaintiffs sought as much as $32.8 billion in damages on behalf of about 2,680 people and asked the court to force Apple to change how the service is monitored.
Section 230 protects Apple
US District Judge Noël Wise ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields Apple from liability for content uploaded by users. The plaintiffs argued that Apple had the technical ability to detect illegal material and should have used it, but the court found that the claims still depended on treating Apple as responsible for third-party content. The judge also rejected the argument that Apple had a legal duty to inspect every file stored in iCloud or develop new scanning technology. The case was dismissed with prejudice, preventing the same claims from being filed again in the same form, though the plaintiffs may still appeal.
NeuralHash returned to the case
The lawsuit relied heavily on NeuralHash, the system Apple announced in 2021 to detect known abuse material before images were uploaded to iCloud Photos. Apple later abandoned the plan after privacy researchers and civil liberties groups warned that the same system could be expanded to other categories of content or used under pressure from governments. The plaintiffs argued that NeuralHash showed Apple already had the means to detect illegal files. The court did not accept that as a basis for liability.
The ruling protects iCloud’s current design
A ruling against Apple could have pushed cloud providers toward broader monitoring of private files and increased pressure to scan encrypted or locally processed content before upload. The court left those decisions to Apple and lawmakers. Apple still has to respond to illegal material and cooperate with authorities, but this case will not force the company to rebuild iCloud around mandatory scanning.
For Apple, the ruling removes a claim worth up to $32.8 billion. For the wider industry, it preserves one of the legal protections behind modern cloud storage.
