GoKawiilManhattan DA Seizes 12 Websites Hosting Celebrity Deepfake Porn
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced it has seized 12 domains used to create, share and sell nonconsensual deepfake sexual content, in what appears to be the largest such takedown to date. Roughly 1,200 people, mostly women including celebrities, politicians and athletes, were depicted without consent. DA Alvin Bragg said investigations into the operators and uploaders behind the sites are continuing, and encouraged victims to contact his office's cybercrime bureau.
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This action represents one of the most aggressive legal responses yet to an industry that has thrived largely unchecked since deepfake tech emerged in 2017, showing that prosecutors can use existing criminal procedure laws to disrupt these operations even without new federal legislation. As AI tools make fabricated explicit imagery faster and more convincing to produce, the case could set a precedent for how state authorities target site infrastructure rather than just individual offenders.
- Manhattan DA seized 12 domains tied to nonconsensual deepfake porn sites.
- About 1,200 victims were identified, mostly women, including public figures.
- Investigations into site operators and content uploaders remain ongoing.
Source: wired.com — Matt Burgess, 2026-09-14
Published there as: “New York Seizes a Dozen Celebrity Deepfake Websites”
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