Manhattan Seizes 12 Deepfake Porn Sites Featuring 1,200 Victims

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has seized the domains of 12 websites that marketed AI-generated deepfake pornography, describing the action as the largest known seizure of celebrity deepfake sites. The websites hosted sexualised videos depicting more than 1,200 people, including politicians, actors, musicians and social justice advocates. At least one site allowed users to create their own material by combining real faces and bodies with sexual imagery. The victims’ images were used without consent, making the material non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII).

District Attorney Alvin Bragg warned that domestic abusers are using threats to release deepfake NCII against victims, while the FBI has said sextortion attackers are turning social media photographs of minors into explicit images. The seizure disrupts distribution from the named domains, but the article notes that operators can move to new infrastructure. An Institute for Strategic Dialogue report described an ecosystem involving AI-tool providers, hosting companies and cryptocurrency payment processors. Bragg’s office said it would monitor the seized websites to prevent them reappearing under different domains.

People affected by the seized sites are urged to preserve evidence and report the matter to police. Bragg’s office advised victims not to pay extortionists, since payment does not guarantee that threats will stop, and said its Cyber Crime Bureau can be contacted on 212-335-9600. The action follows other legal measures, including the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act, enacted in May 2025, which made certain intentional publication of NCII, including sexual deepfakes, a federal crime.