Thanks to Uncle Sam, anyone trying to find nonconsensual intimate deepfakes on CFake.com and SOCFake.com will be disappointed. The US Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security has seized the two domain names under the TAKE IT DOWN Act.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed in May 2025, is the first US federal statute criminalizing the publication of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated forgeries. It imposes penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment, gives covered platforms 48 hours to remove flagged content, and grants the forfeiture powers the DOJ just used.
According to the seizure warrants, the digital forgeries depicted “politicians, first ladies of multiple countries, royalty, journalists, television presenters, athletes, entertainers, and others,” and visitors could browse them under tags including “rape,” “forced,” and “degradation”.
The authorities didn’t just snag the sites, though. They got the alleged operator of CFake.com, in an international effort.
The US alerted the Paris prosecutor’s office to a French national in Nice who was allegedly running CFake.com. French investigators counted roughly 300,000 images and 7,000 videos depicting 14,000 people across CFake.com, drawing four million monthly views from 200,000 user accounts.
They then arrested the IT professional, who had no prior criminal record. They also found around $64,000 in Ether cryptocurrency at his home in advertising revenue from the site.
The man will be tried on July 7 in Paris for carrying out illicit transactions online and providing nonconsensual sexual deepfakes. The former offence carries a potential seven years’ imprisonment and a €500,000 (approximately $580,000) fine. The latter could yield three years and a €75,000 ($87,000) fine.
Providers and accused providers of nonconsensual intimate deepfakes have also been held in the US. In April, James Strahler II from Ohio pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, producing child sexual abuse material, and publishing digital forgeries.
Strahler had downloaded produced over 700 images and animations posted to a child sexual abuse site, and had sent deepfake material to at least six adult women, including one sent to a victim’s coworkers.
Last month, the DoJ also arrested Cornelius Shannon and Arturo Hernandez under the TAKE IT DOWN Act for publishing thousands of deepfake images of prominent women and those not in the public eye.
Other countries are also taking action. Anthony Rontondo was arrested by Australian authorities in May last year for posting deepfaked pictures of prominent Australian women. He eventually received an AU$343,000 fine.
How prevalent are deepfakes?
These seizures and prosecutions are encouraging, but prosecutors trying to force non-consensual deepfakes offline face a rising tide of such material. Requests for and sharing of nonconsensual deepfake imagery have risen, with activity migrating across platforms. Deepfake incidents overall jumped 257% in 2024, and girls accounted for 94% of victims in reported AI-generated child sexual abuse cases.
Seizing a distribution point removes a storefront. It does not remove the AI models used to produce the material, the anonymous hosting providers downstream, or the demand that draws visitors in the first place.
What you can do
If you or someone you know are depicted in a nonconsensual deepfake, keep dated screenshots, URLs, and any communications as evidence before filing a takedown request and reporting it to the authorities.
Limit the high-resolution face images you and your children post publicly, since school portraits and social media profile pictures are the raw material these tools need.
Take advantage of expert advice to help protect yourself from non-consensual deepfakes:
- Cyber Civil Rights Safety Initiative Safety Center (US)
- Revenge Porn Helpline (UK)
- Cybertip.ca (Canada)
Let’s face it, an incognito window can only do so much.
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