Department of Justice seizes CFAKE, SOCFAKE deepfake nude sites under the Take It Down Act

The U.S. Division of Justice introduced on Friday that it had seized the CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com web sites suspected of internet hosting nude pictures and movies of ladies generated by AI with out their consent. This seems to be the primary area seizure introduced beneath the TAKE IT DOWN Act.

The websites shared sexually specific digital pictures, or deepfakes, depicting politicians, celebrities, athletes, musicians and even royalty from a number of nations, in response to the Justice Division.

“In keeping with the possible trigger affidavit supporting the seizure warrant, the digital counterfeits have been made to seem like sexual pictures of well-known girls, together with politicians, first women of a number of nations, royalty, journalists, tv hosts, athletes, entertainers, and others,” the Justice Division’s assertion stated.

Deepfakes are AI-generated or AI-manipulated media that depicts one thing a human stated, did, or appeared to by no means have occurred. Deepfake pictures and movies may be created from current pictures, movies, or audio recordings and are sometimes used to generate non-consensual nude content material, identification fraud, phishing assaults, and cryptocurrency scams.

The CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com domains have been seized Thursday by the Division of Justice and Homeland Safety Investigations after a federal decide discovered possible trigger that they have been being utilized in violation of the TAKE IT DOWN Act.

These domains are presently displaying seizure notices indicating that they’ve been taken offline pursuant to seizure warrants as a part of an operation involving america, Italy, and France.

“This area was seized by the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety, Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) New Jersey Area Workplace, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by the New Jersey District Courtroom, as a part of a coordinated regulation enforcement effort by HSI, the French Nationwide Police, the Paris Prosecutor’s Workplace, Italy’s Polizia di Stato Postal and Cybersecurity Police, the U.S. Division of Justice’s Laptop Crime and Mental Property Bureau, and the U.S. Authorities. New Jersey District Lawyer’s Workplace, 47 U.S.C. 223 for violation of the Articles of Invention,” reads a seizure banner on the web site.

“The Take It Down Act (47 USC § 223) prohibits the nonconsensual publication of intimate pictures or digital forgeries (i.e., deepfakes). Violators could also be topic to fines, imprisonment, or each.”

The investigation started after Italy’s Postal and Cybersecurity Police alerted U.S. authorities to the web site.

In keeping with Italian media experiences, regulation enforcement authorities started the investigation in October 2025 after receiving complaints about AI-generated sexually specific pictures of ladies in politics, sports activities, leisure, and different public-facing professions.

Italian authorities later obtained a court docket order blocking entry to the web site in Italy whereas the investigation continues. The Justice Division stated proof collected by U.S. regulation enforcement was later shared with French authorities.

French prosecutors and investigative authorities subsequently performed an investigation, arrested the suspect in Good, France on June 10, and seized digital forex allegedly associated to the operation.

The bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act was signed into regulation in Might 2025 to fight the unfold of non-consensual pictures, together with AI-generated deepfake pornography. The invoice was supported by First Woman Melania Trump as a part of her “Be Finest” initiative.

The regulation makes it a federal crime to publish sexually specific pictures of people with out their consent. The regulation additionally requires on-line platforms to take away reported intimate pictures and deepfakes inside 48 hours of receiving a legitimate request from a sufferer.

“The seizure of those domains marks an necessary victory within the battle towards deepfake pornography,” Performing Lawyer Basic Todd Blanche stated in an announcement Friday.

“The Take It Down Act, sponsored by First Woman Melania Trump, offers us the instruments we have to fight the abuse and exploitation of ladies and kids by fabricated pictures.”

The regulation was beforehand used towards an Ohio man who pleaded responsible to prices associated to creating sexually specific AI-generated pictures.

Nonetheless, the seizure of CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com seems to be the primary publicly introduced utility of the regulation to focus on web sites allegedly used to distribute deepfake pornography.