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NOPE
High reported severity Criminal Charges

Brooklyn: federal prosecutors unsealed complaints on 20 May 2026 charging two unconnected men, of New Jersey and Texas, under the TAKE IT DOWN Act with publishing AI deepfake pornography of about 90 women and about 50 identifiable women (actresses, singers, political figures and, in one case, non-public women) since May 2025; among the earliest federal prosecutions under the 2025 law

On 20 May 2026 the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed two criminal complaints (docket numbers 26-MJ-96 and 26-MJ-97) charging Cornelius Shannon, 51, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, of Bedias, Texas, with violating the TAKE IT DOWN Act, the federal law enacted on 19 May 2025 that prohibits the non-consensual publication of intimate images including AI-generated digital forgeries. The two were arrested the same day in unconnected cases. Prosecutors allege that since 19 May 2025 Shannon published at least 360 albums of AI deepfake pornography on an adult image- and video-sharing platform depicting approximately 90 different women, viewed millions of times, and that Hernandez published approximately 113 albums on a website depicting approximately 50 identifiable women, including individuals who are not public figures, in which non-explicit images morph into sexually explicit deepfakes, viewed nearly a million times. The victims included actresses, singers and political figures; TIME and TechTimes report, citing the complaint, that Hernandez's victims also included recent high-school graduates. Each defendant faces up to two years' imprisonment if convicted; the charges are allegations.

AI system
Unidentified image and video tool
Occurred
19 May 2025 to 20 May 2026
Reported
20 May 2026
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or AbuseReputational HarmPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Privacy · Justice · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources
4 claims: 2 documented, 2 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: AI image and video generation tools used to make sexually explicit 'digital forgeries' (deepfakes) of identifiable women; the tools are not named in the press release or the inspected reporting

What Happened

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced on 20 May 2026 that two criminal complaints had been unsealed at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn charging Cornelius Shannon and Arturo Hernandez with violations of the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which it described as enacted one year earlier to prohibit the non-consensual publication of AI-generated digital-forgery (deepfake) pornography. According to the release, the two allegedly posted thousands of images and videos that appeared to depict real people nude or engaging in sexual acts; the victims included actresses, singers and political figures, and Hernandez also posted hundreds of depictions of non-public figures. Hernandez was arrested that day in Bedias, Texas, and Shannon in New Jersey. Court filings, as summarised in the release, allege that since 19 May 2025 Shannon published at least 360 albums of AI deepfake pornography depicting approximately 90 different female victims on an image- and video-sharing platform for adult content, viewed millions of times, and that Hernandez published approximately 113 albums on a website depicting approximately 50 different identifiable female victims, including non-public individuals; his albums contain non-explicit images of identifiable individuals that morph into deepfake depictions in various stages of undress or engaging in sexually explicit conduct, viewed nearly a million times. The U.S. Attorney said the defendants had used digital technology to create images that degraded and violated victims across the United States and referred to the law's new authorities against psychological, reputational and financial abuse; the FBI's New York field office said the conduct inflicts emotional harm on victims and violates their privacy, dignity and security. TIME (22 May) reported that the men were arrested in unconnected cases on Wednesday, each faces up to two years in prison, and they are among the earliest defendants charged under the 2025 law. TIME also reported, citing the complaint, that some of Hernandez's material depicted recent high-school graduates. TechTimes (25 May) reported that Shannon appeared the same day before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Cross-Goldenberg in Brooklyn, repeated the high-school-graduates detail as a prosecutors' statement, and summed the two approximate figures as about 140 victims and nearly 3 million views. The release's subheading describes the victims as including celebrities, elected officials and acquaintances of the defendants.

Reported harm

About 90 and about 50 identifiable women, per the complaints as summarised by prosecutors, were depicted nude or in sexual acts in AI deepfake albums published on adult-content sites and viewed millions of times; the U.S. Attorney characterised the material as degrading and violating the victims and the law's purpose as addressing psychological, reputational and financial abuse, and the FBI said the conduct inflicts emotional harm and violates privacy and dignity. No individual victim's account was inspected.

Outcome

Ongoing

Two criminal complaints unsealed 20 May 2026 at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn (E.D.N.Y. docket numbers 26-MJ-96 and 26-MJ-97), each charging a violation of the TAKE IT DOWN Act; Hernandez was arrested in Bedias, Texas, to be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date; Shannon was arrested in New Jersey and, per TechTimes, appeared the same day before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Cross-Goldenberg in Brooklyn. Each faces up to two years' imprisonment if convicted. The prosecution is handled by the office's National Security and Cybercrime Section with forfeiture proceedings. The charges are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent. No later docket activity was inspected.

What remains unknown

  • The AI tools used to generate the material.
  • The identities and locations of the depicted women; whether any has spoken publicly.
  • The exact number of victims: prosecutors give approximate figures only.
  • Later docket activity (arraignment, pleas, sentences) after May 2026.
  • Whether the material has been removed from the platforms.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The release describes the material as AI deepfake pornography and AI-generated digital forgeries, and the charge is publication of such forgeries under the TAKE IT DOWN Act; the generation tools are not identified and the complaints themselves were not inspected.

4 claims: 2 documented, 2 reported. What the statuses mean

Documented On 20 May 2026 two criminal complaints were unsealed at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn charging Cornelius Shannon, 51, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, of Bedias, Texas, with violating the TAKE IT DOWN Act; both were arrested that day in unconnected cases and each faces up to two years' imprisonment if convicted.

Causal attribution. Established by the prosecutor's own release (the fact of the charges and arrests); the underlying allegations remain allegations.

  • justice.gov(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'two criminal complaints were unsealed charging Cornelius Shannon and Arturo Hernandez with violations of the TAKE IT DOWN Act'; 'Hernandez was arrested today in Bedias, Texas, and will be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date. Shannon was arrested today in New Jersey'; 'If convicted of the charge, the defendants each face up to two years'; 'E.D.N.Y. Docket Nos. 26-MJ-96 and 26-MJ-97'
  • time.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Arturo Hernandez, 20, and Cornelius Shannon, 51, were arrested in unconnected cases on Wednesday and each faces up to two years in prison.'
  • techtimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Shannon was arrested in New Jersey and appeared the same day before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Cross-Goldenberg in Brooklyn.'
Reported Prosecutors allege that since 19 May 2025 Shannon published at least 360 albums of AI deepfake pornography depicting approximately 90 different women on an adult image- and video-sharing platform, viewed millions of times, and that since approximately the same date Hernandez published approximately 113 albums on a website depicting approximately 50 identifiable women, including non-public individuals, in which non-explicit images morph into sexually explicit deepfakes, viewed nearly a million times; the victims included actresses, singers and political figures.

Causal attribution. Prosecutors' allegations as summarised in the release and relayed by TechTimes; the complaints were not inspected and the defendants are presumed innocent.

  • justice.gov(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Since May 19, 2025, Shannon has published at least 360 albums containing AI deepfake pornography depicting approximately 90 different female victims. The content published by Shannon has been viewed millions of times.'; 'Hernandez has published approximately 113 albums on the website which contained deepfake content depicting approximately 50 different identifiable female victims, including individuals who are not public figures.'; 'The content published by Hernandez has been viewed nearly a million times.'; 'The victims included actresses, singers and political figures.'; 'an image- and video-sharing internet platform designed for creators to share adult and explicit content'; 'The albums contain non-explicit images of identifiable individuals which morph into deepfake depictions of the individuals in various stages of undress or engaging in sexually explicit conduct.'
  • techtimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'published at least 360 albums containing AI-generated deepfake pornography depicting approximately 90 different female victims since May 19, 2025'; 'collectively depicting around 50 identifiable female victims'
Reported TIME and TechTimes report, citing the complaint and prosecutors respectively, that Hernandez's victims included recent high-school graduates; TechTimes sums the two approximate figures as about 140 victims and nearly 3 million views.

Causal attribution. The high-school-graduates detail is attributed by TIME to the complaint and by TechTimes to prosecutors; both derive from the same court filing, which was not inspected, so the claim stays reported. The release does not mention it and gives approximate figures per defendant rather than a combined total; the 140 and 3 million figures are TechTimes' sums.

  • time.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Some of the materials were deepfakes of recent high school graduates, the complaint said.'
  • techtimes.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Prosecutors said the victims included recent high school graduates.'; 'Federal prosecutors charged two men whose combined deepfake albums depicted 140 named victims and reached nearly 3 million views.'
Documented The U.S. Attorney said that, as alleged, the defendants used digital technology to create images that degraded and violated victims across the United States and cited new authorities against psychological, reputational and financial abuse; the FBI said the conduct inflicts emotional harm on victims and violates their privacy, dignity and security.

Causal attribution. Officials' characterisation of the alleged harm; no individual victim's account was inspected.

  • justice.gov(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'the defendants used cutting-edge digital technology to create images that degraded and violated victims across the United States'; 'emerging forms of psychological, reputational, and financial abuse'; 'inflicts emotional harm on victims, violating their privacy, dignity, and security'
  • time.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'This case makes clear that posting deepfake pornography is not a victimless crime'

Sources

3 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read on 2026-09-24 from an Internet Archive capture of 21 May 2026 (web.archive.org/web/20260521195624id_/...); the live page returned a 16 kB Akamai shell. Press release dated Wednesday 20 May 2026. Applies to s1.

Read live on 2026-09-24 (TIME, Miranda Jeyaretnam, 22 May 2026): arrests in unconnected cases, sentence exposure, the law's background; quotes the U.S. Attorney's statement. Applies to s2.

Read live on 2026-09-24 (TechTimes, 25 May 2026): confirms Shannon's same-day appearance before the magistrate judge named in the release, repeats the 'recent high school graduates' detail (also in TIME) and sums the approximate figures; relies on the release and court filings. Applies to s3.

Cited by the June 2026 row; on 2026-09-24 the Internet Archive capture contained no article text and the reader proxy returned 403. Not relied on. Applies to s4.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: United States.

The defendants lived in New Jersey and Texas and were arrested there; the U.S. Attorney described victims across the United States; the complaints were unsealed in the Eastern District of New York (release). Individual victims' locations are not reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-24: Restored under the 2026-09-15 charter as a harmful-artifact case: sexually explicit AI deepfakes of approximately 90 and approximately 50 identifiable women published at scale, documented by the prosecuting office's release (an official record of the charges) with two separate news accounts that rely on the release and complaints; the allegations are recorded as allegations. The original ID and first-publication timestamp are preserved; the arrest date and the aggregated figures of the historical row are corrected. No victim is named.

People described

Approximately 90 women depicted in Shannon's albums and approximately 50 identifiable women depicted in Hernandez's albums, per the complaints as summarised by prosecutors: actresses, singers and political figures, and in Hernandez's case individuals who are not public figures (TIME and TechTimes, citing the complaint: recent high-school graduates). None is named in the release or here

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

Prosecutors give approximate figures only: approximately 90 different female victims (Shannon) and approximately 50 different identifiable female victims (Hernandez) per the release; TechTimes sums them as about 140. No exact count or explicit lower bound is stated, so the status is unquantified with zero placeholders and the approximate figures are recorded here.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#deepfake#ncii#take-it-down-act#criminal-charges#united-states#new-york#brooklyn#federal-prosecution

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Brooklyn: federal prosecutors unsealed complaints on 20 May 2026 charging two unconnected men, of New Jersey and Texas, under the TAKE IT DOWN Act with publishing AI deepfake pornography of about 90 women and about 50 identifiable women (actresses, singers, political figures and, in one case, non-public women) since May 2025; among the earliest federal prosecutions under the 2025 law. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-edny-deepfake-take-it-down-act

BibTeX

@misc{2026_edny_deepfake_take_it_down_act,
  title = {Brooklyn: federal prosecutors unsealed complaints on 20 May 2026 charging two unconnected men, of New Jersey and Texas, under the TAKE IT DOWN Act with publishing AI deepfake pornography of about 90 women and about 50 identifiable women (actresses, singers, political figures and, in one case, non-public women) since May 2025; among the earliest federal prosecutions under the 2025 law},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-edny-deepfake-take-it-down-act}
}

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