New York seizes 12 celebrity deepfake sites affecting ~1,200 victims
404 Media · rss · 2026-09-15
The New York DA announced the seizure of 12 websites hosting AI-generated non-consensual intimate imagery, believed to be the largest such seizure in history. Operators and users turned photos of roughly 1,200 people into hyper-realistic sexualized images and videos using AI tools.
Victims were mostly public figures — actors, politicians, athletes, musicians, and influencers. New York has criminalized sexually explicit deepfakes since 2023, the law underpinning this action. DA Alvin Bragg stressed deepfakes are also used in domestic violence cases and urged victims to contact the Cyber Crime Bureau. Earlier, DOJ and DHS seized two similar domains in June, and MrDeepfakes.com shut down in May 2025 after investigations.
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