Manhattan DA Seizes 12 Domains Accused of Selling Celebrity Deepfakes

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has seized 12 web domains it says were used to unlawfully share, publish and sell sexually explicit deepfake videos of celebrities. The sites collectively depicted about 1,200 people, overwhelmingly women, in nonconsensual sexual images and videos.

The people depicted included social media influencers, actors, activists, athletes, musicians and politicians. The sites hosted explicit videos that placed celebrities’ or public figures’ faces into existing pornographic footage. The alleged material therefore tied recognizable identities to sexual content without consent.

A court order took the sites offline

The seizures were carried out under New York criminal procedure laws and followed seizure warrants issued by the New York State Supreme Court. Before the district attorney’s announcement, WIRED observed several affected homepages replaced with notices saying the domains had been seized.

The case has not named the alleged operators

The Manhattan DA has not publicly named the seized websites. Its investigation into the people responsible for the sites and those who uploaded damaging videos remains ongoing, so the seizure does not yet reveal who may face further enforcement.

The sites’ targets included public officials

• The American Sunlight Project said at least two seized sites kept profiles for elected officials, listing their names and positions alongside manipulated videos.
• That reported design made the fabricated videos easier to associate with a public figure’s real-world role.

A shutdown reaches only one layer

Leonie Oehmig, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, called the takedowns a significant win against synthetic nonconsensual intimate imagery. She said the affected sites did not appear reachable through VPNs, but argued that effective intervention must also address the tools that create material, the channels that promote it, and the hosting, payment and affiliate systems used by operators.