{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T07:11:25.003Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"federal-prosecution","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-edny-deepfake-take-it-down-act","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'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'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Arturo Hernandez, 20, and Cornelius Shannon, 51, were arrested in unconnected cases on Wednesday and each faces up to two years in prison.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'Shannon was arrested in New Jersey and appeared the same day before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Cross-Goldenberg in Brooklyn.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'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.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'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'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Some of the materials were deepfakes of recent high school graduates, the complaint said.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'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.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"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."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'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'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'This case makes clear that posting deepfake pornography is not a victimless crime'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"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."}],"effects":[{"label":"approximately 90 and approximately 50 identifiable women were depicted nude or in sexual acts in AI deepfake albums published on adult-content sites and viewed millions of times (prosecutors' allegations)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/two-individuals-arrested-publishing-ai-deepfake-pornography-violation-take-it-down-act","kind":"official_record","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"usao-edny-release"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/22/ai-deepfake-revenge-porn-take-it-down-act-law/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"time"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.techtimes.com/articles/317135/20260525/ai-deepfake-pornography-charges-140-victims-named-take-it-down-act-claims-first-major-arrests.htm","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"techtimes"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://brooklyneagle.com/389427/2-men-charged-with-creating-ai-generated-porn-under-new-law-targeting-deepfakes/","kind":"news_report","access":"unavailable","language":null,"translation_note":"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.","independence_group":"brooklyn-eagle"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["privacy","justice","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["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."],"geography":{"basis":"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.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"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.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-24"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"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.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["depicted_or_impersonated"]},"name":"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","summary":"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.","incidentDate":"2025-05-19","incidentEndDate":"2026-05-20","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-05-20","aiSystem":"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","aiProduct":"Unidentified image and video tool","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["exploitation_or_abuse","reputational_harm","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"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.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"unquantified","affectedCountEvidence":"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.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"criminal_charges","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/two-individuals-arrested-publishing-ai-deepfake-pornography-violation-take-it-down-act","primarySourceLabel":"U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, 20 May 2026: Two Individuals Arrested for Publishing AI Deepfake Pornography In Violation Of TAKE IT DOWN Act","firstPublishedAt":"2026-06-03T07:36:19.792596+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:36.09979+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["deepfake","ncii","take-it-down-act","criminal-charges","united-states","new-york","brooklyn","federal-prosecution","depicted-or-impersonated"]}]}