DOJ seized the deepfake-nude sites CFAKE and SOCFAKE in the first enforcement action under the…

On June 12, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of two prominent websites, CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com, marking the first enforcement action of its kind under the TAKE IT DOWN Act. The operation, which involved international coordination between U.S., French, and Italian authorities, targeted platforms that hosted nonconsensual, AI-generated explicit imagery of public figures.

What happened

The websites functioned by allowing users to generate and share sexually explicit deepfakes derived from ordinary photos. According to the DOJ, the content targeted a wide range of female public figures, including politicians, royalty, journalists, athletes, entertainers, and television presenters from multiple countries.

The investigation originated in Italy, where the Polizia di Stato - Postal and Cybersecurity Police alerted U.S. authorities after receiving complaints regarding the sites. Following this, Italian authorities blocked access to the domains domestically. U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Justice subsequently gathered evidence and coordinated with French law enforcement. This led to the arrest of a suspect in Nice, France, on June 10, 2025, and the seizure of associated cryptocurrency.

A federal judge in New Jersey issued seizure warrants after finding probable cause that the sites violated the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a law signed in May 2025 to combat the nonconsensual publication of intimate imagery and digital forgeries. The domains were taken offline on June 12, displaying a notice citing violations of 47 U.S.C. § 223. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described the move as a significant victory in combating the exploitation of women through fabricated images, noting that the act provides essential legal tools to address the spread of deepfake pornography.