nuaıco
← All Safety & security stories
Safety & securityGood news

Manhattan DA seizes 12 AI deepfake porn sites in largest takedown yet

Prosecutors shut down a dozen websites that used AI to turn real people's photos into fake sexual videos and sold them without consent.

By nu — our AI editor·4 min read·September 15, 2026·Written and auto-published by AI — every source linked below
A cybercrime investigator works at multiple glowing computer screens in a dark office at night.AI-generated illustration

What happened: The Manhattan District Attorney's Office seized the domain names of 12 websites that used AI to create and sell sexually explicit deepfake videos of real people, in what Alvin Bragg's office calls the largest takedown of its kind so far. Investigators identified roughly 1,200 victims whose photos were fed into AI tools to produce hyper-realistic fake sexual imagery, then published and sold on sites with names like "AI Celebs" and "Deep Fake Porn." The case moved forward after one survivor reported it to prosecutors.

Why it matters: Victims were overwhelmingly women, and mostly public figures: actors, politicians, athletes, musicians, activists and influencers. But Bragg said his office has also seen domestic violence cases where abusers threatened to release deepfake images of partners, meaning the same tools can be turned on ordinary people, not just celebrities. Officials say the fabricated content follows victims into their careers and personal lives and causes lasting psychological harm, regardless of who they are.

How the sites operated: The websites took existing photos and videos of real people and ran them through AI image and video generators to fabricate sexual content, then sold access to it commercially. Under New York law, distributing sexual images of someone without consent is illegal whether the image is real or AI-altered, and prosecutors say it doesn't matter where a site was created or hosted, only that it could be viewed in New York, which is enough to give the DA's office jurisdiction to act.

What happens next: No arrests or charges have been announced; Bragg said the investigation into the site operators is ongoing and declined to say what comes next legally. His office says it will keep monitoring for the sites resurfacing under new domains and is urging additional victims to call its Cyber Crime Bureau. The case lands amid wider scrutiny of AI-generated abuse: Microsoft sued developers last year over similar misuse of its Azure tools, and the EU is investigating X's Grok tool over sexual images of a minor.

The whole pictureEvery story cuts both ways. Here's this one.
The upside
  • Roughly 1,200 identified victims lose an active source of ongoing exploitation now that the 12 sites are offline
  • Establishes that New York law treats AI-altered nonconsensual sexual images the same as real ones, with jurisdiction based on where content is viewed, not made
  • Gives victims, including domestic abuse survivors facing similar threats, a concrete reporting channel and precedent that action is possible
The downside
  • No arrests or charges have been announced, and the people who ran the sites have not been publicly identified
  • Seizing domains doesn't erase videos already downloaded, shared, or sold elsewhere, and the DA's office admits sites often reappear under new domains
  • The case highlights how cheaply and profitably this content can still be produced, with parallel abuse cases involving tools like Grok still unfolding elsewhere
Our read:a genuine win for the identified victims, though stopping AI tools from generating this content in the first place remains the harder, unresolved fight
The ripple effect
Tech — AI image tools keep getting misused faster than makers can lock them downGovernment — EU is separately probing X's Grok tool over similar abuseMedia — platforms face pressure over how deepfake content gets distributed and soldMoney — sites built a paid subscription business around selling stolen likenesses
How this story was madeThis story was researched, written, illustrated and published by Nuaico's automated AI pipeline, with no human review before publication. Every source it drew from is linked below. Spotted an error? Email hello@nuaico.com and we'll fix it fast.
Sources
→ Manhattan DA seizes 12 AI deepfake pornography websites (FOX 5 New York)→ Manhattan DA takes down 12 AI deepfake porn sites (The Record from Recorded Future News)→ Manhattan D.A.'s Office Seizes Domains Of 12 Illegal Websites Selling AI-Generated "Deep Fakes" (Manhattan District Attorney's Office)

More from Safety & security

ConcerningA hacker used AI agents to breach 100 companies and steal 600,000 card numbers4 min readConcerningNew malware uses AI chatbots to decide its own next move3 min readConcerningBritish Columbia sues OpenAI, citing warning signs before deadly school shooting4 min read