Two Men Charged in First Major AI Deepfake Pornography Enforcement

Federal prosecutors charged two men this week with using AI to generate and distribute sexually explicit images of women without their consent, marking one of the first major enforcement actions under the new Take It Down Act.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York charged Arturo Hernandez of Texas and Cornelius Shannon of New Jersey in separate cases involving alleged AI-generated deepfake pornography.

“The defendants used cutting-edge digital technology to create images that degraded and violated victims across the United States,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said in a statement. “This case makes clear that posting deepfake pornography is not a victimless crime.”

Prosecutors allege Shannon and Hernandez posted thousands of AI-generated images and videos depicting real people—including actresses, singers, political figures, and recent high school graduates—engaged in sexual acts. Shannon and Hernandez allegedly uploaded more than 470 albums depicting over 140 women to websites where the AI-generated images and videos received millions of views.

Court filings say the images appeared to use real, non-explicit photographs altered with AI software into sexually explicit content. The men face up to two years in prison.

President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law in May 2025. The legislation makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to publish non-consensual intimate imagery, whether authentic or AI-generated. It also requires online platforms to remove reported content within 48 hours.

The Take It Down Act received bipartisan support in Washington and comes as courts confront a growing wave of lawsuits tied to AI-generated deepfakes, including cases accusing Elon Musk’s xAI and its Grok chatbot of creating and distributing non-consensual sexualized images, such as images depicting minors.

Several states, including California, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania, have enacted similar laws, targeting non-consensual intimate imagery and AI-generated deepfakes.

In April, James Strahler, of Columbus, Ohio, became the first person convicted under the law after pleading guilty to federal charges involving over 700 AI-generated sexually explicit images of adults and children.

“This predatory conduct represents a disturbing abuse of technology that inflicts emotional harm on victims, violating their privacy, dignity, and security,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle Jr. said in a statement. “The use of this emerging technology to victimize individuals is not innovative—it is criminal and will be pursued with the full force of the law.”