For nearly a decade, a dark corner of the internet has hosted abusive deepfake pornography websites, publishing thousands of non-consensual videos depicting women, including high-profile celebrities, politicians, and public figures, in sexual situations. Now, in what is likely the largest takedown of explicit deepfake websites to date, officials in New York have seized more than a dozen of these harmful sites. On Monday, the **Manhattan District Attorney’s Office** announced the seizure of 12 domains. These domains were allegedly used for “unlawfully” sharing, publishing, and selling celebrity deepfake videos. Approximately 1,200 people—overwhelmingly women—were depicted in non-consensual sexual images and videos on these websites, the office stated. Victims included social media influencers, actors, activists, athletes, musicians, and politicians. “These horrific violations of privacy follow victims into their careers and personal lives and take an immense toll on emotional and mental well-being,” stated District Attorney **Alvin Bragg**. He urged potential victims to come forward and contact his office’s cybercrime bureau. Investigations into those responsible for the websites and those who uploaded damaging videos are ongoing. ### A Significant Blow to Deepfake Proliferation The seizures, carried out under New York’s criminal procedure laws, represent one of the most significant and sweeping actions against websites hosting explicit deepfake videos since the technology first emerged in late 2017. As artificial intelligence technology has improved, a dark industry of websites, apps, and bots has appeared, designed to “undress” photos of women or create graphic sexual videos. These images and videos are increasingly realistic and can be generated in seconds. While deepfake technology is widely used against non-famous women and girls—often shared in private social media groups—celebrities have also spoken out about the many harms of being depicted in the content and the challenges of getting it removed. While laws against deepfakes have been slow to emerge, the **US Take It Down Act** increasingly allows images to be removed, with part of the law allowing law enforcement officials to take down and seize websites. The **Manhattan District Attorney’s Office** has not publicly named the seized websites. However, ahead of Bragg’s announcement, WIRED independently observed several of the sites’ homepages being replaced by takedown notices—“THIS DOMAIN HAS BEEN SEIZED”—late last week. The sites now state they have been taken over following a seizure warrant issued by a **New York State Supreme Court**. ### Expert Perspectives on Enforcement “The takedowns are a significant win in the fight against synthetic nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII),” says **Leonie Oehmig**, a researcher at the **Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD)**, who has studied the deepfake creation ecosystem. Oehmig notes that enforcement of state laws demonstrates that harmful content can be tackled and that the seized sites do not appear to be accessible even when using VPNs from other locations. “This shows that meaningful, coordinated enforcement is achievable even where regulation itself remains fragmented across jurisdictions.” These websites were likely viewed millions of times. Many used names that included phrases such as “sex celebrity” or promised “real deepfakes.” They hosted false videos of some of the world’s most famous celebrities, with one claiming, “various actresses’ faces are used for deepfakes.” Videos could be several minutes in length and include fully sexually explicit scenes, often swapping the faces of celebrities or public figures into existing pornographic videos. Archived versions of the websites show some videos had been watched tens of thousands of times, with one website claiming to have been online since 2018. “Most videos took the shape of actual pornographic movies, manipulated to instead show targets’ faces instead of the original actors,” says **Benjamin Shultz**, lead researcher at the **American Sunlight Project**, a nonprofit. Shultz, who has documented deepfake abuse against political figures and encountered some of these websites during his research, stated that many videos appeared to be reposts of content originally shared on the **MrDeepFakes** website, a notorious deepfake platform taken offline after its creators were unmasked. “On at least two of the seized websites, elected officials were given profiles containing their name and position, along with a grid of manipulated videos hosting their likeness,” Shultz added. Through recent research, Shultz found that 56 European politicians had been mentioned or appeared on the websites, including 16 US politicians and two based in the UK. While Oehmig, the ISD researcher, finds the takedowns encouraging, she emphasizes that many other parts of the deepfake industry continue to cause serious harm. “Effective intervention needs to target the ecosystem at multiple points, including the tools used for the creation of synthetic NCII, the discovery and promotion of these, the hosting and technical infrastructure that keeps them online, and the payment and affiliate systems that enable operators to monetize them,” Oehmig concluded.