Researchers say the network appears to be run by Chinese-language developers and a Hong Kong-registered entity, KeLing Technology Limited.
The entity did not respond to WIRED's requests for comment, though public links between it and the deepfake tools appeared to be erased after it was contacted.
Researchers traced the network through thousands of video ads on Meta's Facebook and Instagram, hundreds of which WIRED has previously reported contained AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
Those ads linked to apps in Apple's and Google's app stores, where people could generate images and pay through Apple and Google Pay.
Paul Bouchaud of the nonprofit AI Forensics called it an organized, commercial operation that does not expect enforcement to catch up.
By his analysis, 27 of the apps were live on Google Play in September, with more than 350,000 combined downloads, and many were rated suitable for all ages.
The apps work by contacting a server when they are downloaded. Bouchaud says the server receives details such as the user's location, language and a unique identifier, and then tells the app whether to show the harmless or the explicit version. One apparent trigger is arriving through a Meta ad. Infoblox researcher Maël Le Touz identified almost 500 linked domains that share code and reference one another.
Apple removed 19 apps, including Viefur, after WIRED shared its findings. It said the apps passed review but their developers later swapped in pornographic content, and that it has suspended tens of thousands of apps for such bait-and-switch tactics in the past year. Google removed most of the apps before being contacted and did not comment. Meta says it banned KeLing Technology Limited from advertising in 2025, and that it had removed two-thirds of more than 3,000 associated ads it identified. WIRED reports that similar ads and apps were still being published as it finished its reporting.
