Manhattan DA says 12 seized websites sold AI-generated sexual deepfakes of about 1,200 people; the depictions' dates and an exact count are not established

The Manhattan District Attorney's press release of 14 September 2026 announces the seizure of 12 domain names of websites it describes as used for unlawfully disseminating, publishing and selling non-consensual celebrity deepfake videos. It says the sites were seized pursuant to a court order, that the office will monitor them to stop them reappearing under other domains, and that investigations into these and similar operations are ongoing. It does not name the sites, identify operators or report arrests. It asks survivors to contact the office's Cyber Crime Bureau.

The release alleges that individuals under investigation used AI image and video creation tools to turn pre-existing photos and videos of approximately 1,200 real people into what appear to be hyper-realistic images and videos of those people engaging in sexual conduct, and then used the websites to disseminate, publish and sell them. It describes the approximately 1,200 victims as overwhelmingly women and primarily public-facing individuals, including actors, politicians, athletes, musicians, social justice advocates and social media influencers. District Attorney Bragg's statement says such violations follow victims into their careers and personal lives and take an immense toll on emotional and mental wellbeing. These are the prosecuting office's allegations and general statements; the release does not describe individual outcomes, ages or a counting method, and the figure is an approximation rather than a lower bound.

WIRED reported the announcement the same day. It attributes the 1,200 figure to the office. Separately, it says it had independently observed several of the sites' homepages replaced by 'THIS DOMAIN HAS BEEN SEIZED' notices late the previous week, with the notices citing a seizure warrant issued by a New York State Supreme Court; the warrant itself was not inspected. WIRED says archived versions of the sites showed some videos watched tens of thousands of times and one site claiming to have been online since 2018. A researcher at the American Sunlight Project told WIRED that most videos were pornographic films manipulated to show the targets' faces, that many appeared to be reposts of content first shared on the MrDeepFakes website, and that at least two of the seized sites gave elected officials profiles with their names and positions. WIRED's figures for politicians combine people mentioned with people who appeared and are not used here as a count of depicted people. An Institute for Strategic Dialogue researcher called the takedowns a significant win and said the seized sites did not appear reachable through VPNs.

The seizure announcement is the response to the reported abuse, not the abuse itself. The inspected sources do not establish when the depictions were created or published, where the people depicted or the operators are, which tools were used, or any adjudicated finding against the unidentified operators.

The Manhattan DA alleges that about 1,200 real people, overwhelmingly women, were depicted without consent in AI-generated sexual images and videos published and sold on 12 websites it seized. The DA says such violations take an immense toll on victims' wellbeing and careers; no individual outcome, age or exact count is established.

Alleged: AI image and video tools used by others to turn real people's photos and videos into sexual imagery that was published and sold without their consent (the DA's allegation; researchers quoted by WIRED describe face-swapped pornographic videos on the sites).

On 14 September 2026 the DA's office announced the seizure of the 12 domains pursuant to a court order and said its investigations into the websites and similar operations were ongoing; it did not name the sites, identify operators or report arrests, and said it would monitor for the sites reappearing under other domains. WIRED reported that the seizure notices cite a New York State Supreme Court seizure warrant, which was not inspected.