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The U.S. Department of Justice seized CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com, two websites that hosted AI-generated nonconsensual nude images of women, in what marks the first publicly announced domain seizure under the TAKE IT DOWN Act.
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The operation involved law enforcement agencies from the United States, Italy, and France, and led to the arrest of a suspect in Nice, France, along with the seizure of cryptocurrency tied to the operation.
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The TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed into law in May 2025, makes it a federal crime to publish sexually explicit deepfake images of identifiable individuals without their consent.
Federal authorities just took down two of the internet’s most notorious deepfake pornography websites. The U.S. Department of Justice seized CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com on Thursday following a coordinated international investigation spanning the U.S., Italy, and France.
The DOJ says both sites hosted AI-generated sexually explicit images and videos depicting real women without their consent, including politicians, celebrities, athletes, journalists, television presenters, musicians, and royalty from multiple countries. The seizure marks what appears to be the first publicly announced domain takedown under the TAKE IT DOWN Act.
International Takedown, One Suspect Arrested
The investigation began in Italy. According to the DOJ, Italian Postal and Cybersecurity Police first alerted U.S. authorities to the websites. Italian investigators opened a formal inquiry in October 2025 after receiving complaints about AI-generated sexually explicit images targeting women in politics, sports, and entertainment. Italian authorities later secured a court order blocking access to the sites within Italy while their investigation continued.
U.S. law enforcement then gathered evidence and shared it with French authorities. French prosecutors conducted their own investigation, which led to the arrest of a suspect in Nice, France, on June 10. Authorities also seized cryptocurrency allegedly connected to the operation.
A federal judge in New Jersey found probable cause that both sites violated the TAKE IT DOWN Act, and HSI’s New Jersey Field Office executed the seizure warrants on Thursday.
Both domains now display official government seizure notices, identifying the participating agencies as Homeland Security Investigations, the French National Police, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, Italy’s Polizia di Stato Postal and Cybersecurity Police, the DOJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
What the Take It Down Act does
The TAKE IT DOWN Act became federal law in May 2025 following bipartisan support in Congress. First Lady Melania Trump championed the legislation as part of her “Be Best” initiative.
The law makes it a federal crime to publish sexually explicit images of identifiable individuals, whether real or AI-generated, without their consent. It also requires online platforms to remove reported intimate images and deepfakes within 48 hours of receiving a valid request from a victim.
According to the DOJ, the law previously secured a guilty plea from an Ohio man on charges related to creating AI-generated sexually explicit images. The seizure of CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com now represents the first publicly announced use of the law to bring down websites distributing deepfake pornography at scale.
The DOJ is also active in other international fraud cases. Former Telekom Malaysia executives face charges over an alleged $20 million scheme, showing the breadth of federal enforcement.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described the takedowns as a meaningful step forward in the fight against deepfake pornography, adding that the legislation gives prosecutors the tools needed to confront the abuse and exploitation of women and children through fabricated imagery.
What Deepfakes are and Why They are Dangerous
A deepfake is AI-generated or AI-manipulated media that depicts a person saying, doing, or appearing in a situation that never occurred. Creators typically use existing photos, videos, or audio recordings as source material. Bad actors use deepfakes to produce nonconsensual nude content, run impersonation scams, launch phishing attacks, and commit cryptocurrency fraud.
According to the DOJ, the content on CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com consisted of digital forgeries fabricated to appear as genuine sexual images of well-known women, including first ladies, royalty, journalists, and athletes from multiple countries. The victims never consented to the creation or distribution of these images.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act now gives U.S. law enforcement a direct legal path to pursue both individual creators and the platforms that host and distribute this content. With two major sites now offline and a suspect in custody, federal authorities are signaling that they intend to use that authority aggressively.
